By Scott Brinton
The Reichsteins believe that Principal John Didden and the coaches must be held responsible for a series of sex-abuse attacks allegedly carried out by three Mepham football players at a Wayne County, Pa., football camp.
The instant the couple emerged from the dimly lit Brookside School auditorium into a fluorescent-bright hallway, a man started screaming in their faces. Then, said Pachter, he spat on the Reichsteins. At that moment, Pachter, a social worker and 23-year North Bellmore resident, realized that he had to help the couple and other parents like them in some way.
The brief incident quickly led Pachter, the Reichsteins and other Bellmore-Merrick residents to form Mepham Parents 4 Change. The grass-roots group is seeking to ensure that Central District officials are held accountable for the attacks. Among the group are two victims' families.
At first, Mepham Parents 4 Change members remained anonymous. Three weeks ago, they sent a statement to the Herald and other media outlets, but did not sign it. Pachter gave his name as a contact, but asked that he not be identified at the time. Last Wednesday, however, members started going public.
In recent weeks, speculation has swirled around Bellmore-Merrick that the Reichsteins began Mepham Parents 4 Change. Pachter, however, said that wasn't true. "Mepham Parents 4 Change wasn't started by the Reichsteins. It was started for people like the Reichsteins," he said.
Pachter added, "This is a movement that has caught the attention of the people in the community who are concerned about the safety of their children."
A varsity football player had threatened the Reichsteins' son, a JV squad member, in the weeks before three other JV players were sexually assaulted with a broomstick, pine cones and golf balls. Reportedly, two of the three as yet unidentified older players who carried out the attacks may have been team leaders. The student who threatened the Reichsteins' child allegedly turned out to be an assailant.
At the board meeting, a chorus of loud boos met Victor Reichstein as he nervously stood at the microphone with an audience of more than 700 at his back, his voice breaking at times as he spoke.
The board declined to answer Reichstein's question about removing school officials. The Central District's attorney said that by law, the board could not speak publicly about personnel. Reichstein and his wife gathered their belongings and hurried to the door.
At the time, the couple seemed like lonely voices. Many in the community scoffed at their attempts to raise questions about who among school officials might be seen as at least partially responsible for the attacks.
Group gathers strength
Mepham Parents 4 Change has given the Reichsteins and other parents a sense of empowerment, they said. The group appears to be quickly gaining strength. Two weeks ago it numbered seven families. In a week it grew to 45 families, and each day, said Pachter, new members join.
On Oct. 23, seven group representatives, including two victims' parents, met with New York State Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr., Assemblyman David McDonough and Assemblywoman Maureen O'Connell at Fuschillo's Freeport office. The legislators said they came away from the meeting feeling horrified, after hearing the victims' parents recount their sons' stories of alleged sexual abuse and torture.
The group representatives said they are in talks with New York state Education Commissioner Richard Mills. The state is now considering what role, if any, it should play in the matter. An investigation by the state Education Department into the Central District's handling of the case is possible.
On Oct. 30, Fuschillo, McDonough and O'Connell met with Dr. Thomas Caramore, the Central District superintendent. The next day, Caramore called Mepham's head football coach, Kevin McElroy, and head JV coach, Art Canestro, to his Brookside School office to offer them some "advice." According to a published report, the superintendent asked them to resign or their coaching contracts for the 2004 season would not be renewed. In effect, they would be fired. It's unclear whether the move resulted from the superintendent's meeting with the legislators.
The three elected officials also said they secured a meeting between Caramore and Mepham Parents 4 Change. Group members said they are willing to sit down with the superintendent at a date that is still to be determined.
Fuschillo described the lawmakers' meeting with Caramore as positive. "The superintendent is committed to working together with the community and all residents for the betterment of the entire community and the school," the senator said.
Mepham Parents 4 Change isn't calling on school officials to resign -- yet. The group is mulling whether it should seek resignations. For now, the group wants the state Education Department to investigate the alleged sodomy case to determine who among the officials might have been negligent. "Somebody has to be accountable for what happened in Wayne County," said Pachter. "That accountability rests with the administration and the coaches."
The group also wants the state to probe whether Mepham High and the Central District comply with Safe Schools legislation, which New York State enacted in the wake of the 1998 Columbine High School shootings in Colorado. The law requires schools to report violent incidents and threats among students to the state Education Department, the Legislature and the governor's office. The information then shows up in the schools' annual Report Cards.
Mepham Parents 4 Change contends that many districts, including Bellmore-Merrick, may be underreporting incidents of violence, fearing that too many black marks on their records would give them reputations as troubled school systems. Since Mepham Parents 4 Change was formed, Pachter said, many people have "contacted us and spoken about other incidents of violence" at Mepham -- incidents that Pachter believes went unreported.
Pachter would like to see state hearings held in the Central District over the matter.
A diverse group
People are joining Mepham Parents 4 Change for varied reasons. For the Reichsteins and the victims' families, they are obvious.
Group member Keith Newberg's two daughters weren't directly affected by the attacks. But Newberg, a 1978 Mepham graduate and North Merrick resident, knows two of the victims' families. Newberg and his wife regularly bowled with one victim's family in East Meadow. They know the other family as neighbors. Newberg said that he and his wife were devastated when they learned of the alleged attacks a week before the story broke in the media.
Newberg, an operations manager, believes that school officials are responsible for the attacks. "Somebody was asleep at the wheel," he said. He also said that Mepham has a history of hazing that dates back decades. Newberg noted that, when he studied at the school in the '70s, it allowed fraternities similar to those found on college campuses. "There was all sorts of stuff that went on," he said.
Newberg said that athletes had their heads dunked in toilets. Older kids got younger students drunk. Fraternity members required pledges to dress as girls and run into the lunchroom. And frat brothers paddled pledges on the buttocks.
Newberg said that he joined the JV football team, but soon quit because of the hazing he witnessed. He instead went into art. The Mepham alumnus noted, however, that the hazing rites were "never violent" like the recent sex-abuse attacks. "This is bizarre," he said.
Mepham has done away with its fraternities, but hazing remains a part of the school's culture, according to at least some current students, particularly ninth-graders.
Valerie Skelly, Mepham class of 1956, said that she supports Mepham Parents 4 Change. The lifelong Bellmorite doesn't consider herself a group member, because she has no children in the school now. Her three kids graduated in the 1980s. She is, however, speaking out on behalf of Mepham Parents 4 Change, because she believes in its mission of ensuring school officials' accountability.
"They're adults in the long run," said Skelly. "They have to be responsible, especially in this case, when they were warned" that a student was threatened before the football camp.
Skelly said that she was never concerned for her children's safety when they attended Mepham. Her daughter ran track. "I was very comfortable with her going away" for overnight trips," she said. Older runners "protected" younger team members, Skelly added.
Pachter noted that Mepham Parents 4 Change supports the school and believes it remains a great learning institution for its more than 1,200 students. "Our pride in Mepham High School isn't in question," he said.
Newberg said of his alma mater, "The school is excellent. I would like to keep it that way."
A Central High School District official could not be reached for comment.
