8 DECEMBER 27, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Forest Hills high principal seeks tighter security measures
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@CNGLOCAL.COM
With Forest Hills High School
(FHHS) being the epicenter
of recent disputes between
Hispanic and Bukharian youth, Principal
Ben Sherman highlighted the need for better
surveillance camera coverage around
the campus as well as more security staff .
But his requests to the city Department
of Education have more or less
fallen on deaf ears, he said, and funds
that could make the school a safer
place for students and staff just has
not been allocated.
“Almost none of my entrances or
exits have cameras facing out or in,
meaning that students run out of the
building and I don’t know who they
are. Students open a door and someone
comes in, I have no record of anybody
coming in,” Sherman said in a Dec. 21
interview with the Ridgewood Times.
“I’ve got 24 exits in this building.”
The high school has 4,000 students
attending and only 80 cameras, which
has led to students assaulting one
another and getting into fights in
area where they know there are blind
spots. About 100 additional cameras
would close the gap, according to staff
at the school who have been working
with the DOE to acquire the equipment
which can cost about $1,000 each.
Sherman shared cell phone footage
of a fi ght that took place over past
week in a section of the school where
surveillance cameras cannot reach,
pointing out that the only way they can
know what happened during a dispute
is if it is fi lmed by bystander.
In the video, two students, one wearing
a hood, squared up in a hallway and
a brief series of blows were exchanged
before a teacher and a security guard
rushed over to break it up.
“Several of the kids were released
from a superintendent’s long-term
suspension regarding an earlier incident
and within days began to settle
the score,” Sherman said. “Most of the
gang fi ghting happens in the neighborhood,
it’s rare for it to happen in the
school like that video showed.”
Another video depicted a group of
people ganging up on possibly more
than one victim at night in the street
near the school.
A victim can be seen going to the
ground and receiving a series of kicks
from about ten people.
Sherman says this is dispute between
Bukharians and Hispanic youth
which started with an earlier fi ght
before it culminated in a retribution
attack in Nov. 29 assault involving
David Paltielov, 16. Paltielov was not
involved in the drama, but was mistaken
for another person who was
involved as he exited a kosher eatery
at 64th Road and 108th Street.
Paltielov attended a nearby yeshiva,
not FHHS.
Witnesses said there were about 20 to
30 crowded around the scene when Paltielov
when he was attacked, and cops
from the 112th Precinct arrested Jonathan
Torres, 18, and Victor Hidalgo, 17.
Although NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task
Force determined that there it was
not an anti-Semitic attack, a crowd of
Bukharians took to streets in defi ance
claiming that they are the victims of a
growing number of hate crimes.
Adam Bergstein, the FHHS chapter
leader for the United Federation
File photo/RIDGEWOOD TIMES
of Teachers, said that with a school
built in 1940 which is now at 200
percent capacity upgrades are not
only long overdue but is not immediately
on the agenda for the DOE.
Since the city reduces funding by 10
percent for high performing schools
in order to improve lower performing
schools, Bergstein fears the FHHS’ success
could be its undoing.
“This school, along with other
schools in Queens have been underfunded
grossly,” Bergstein said. “Even
if we use a low-end estimate, over a tenyear
span, this school has lost between
$12 and $30 million in funding that
would have been available to provide
additional resources in safety and
security.”
Forest Hills High School
Driver suff ers heart attack, dies after crash in Elmhurst
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
An Elmhurst man who died in a
Christmas morning car crash
on a local street had apparently
suff ered a heart attack while behind
the wheel, police reported.
Law enforcement sources said the
collision occurred at 1:19 a.m. on Dec.
25 at the corner of Elbertson Street
and Roosevelt Avenue.
According to police, 50-year-old Wilfredo
Alvarez of Lamont Avenue was
driving a 1991 Honda Civic westbound
on Roosevelt Avenue when he was
stricken with an “apparent cardiac episode.”
This caused him to lose control
of his vehicle, which then slammed into
an unoccupied Toyota Rav 4 SUV.
Officers from the 110th Precinct
and EMS units responded to a 911
call about the crash. Upon arrival,
they found Alvarez unconscious
and unresponsive in the driver’s
seat of the Civic. Paramedics
rushed him to Elmhurst Hospital,
where he was pronounced dead.
The NYPD Highway Patrol Collision
Investigation Squad is still looking
Photo via Getty Images into the case.
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