14 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 22, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Charges fi led
against teen who
made hoax that
triggered F.H.
lockdown
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz
A Queens teenager faces charges
of making terroristic threats for
causing the “hoax” that led to last
week’s lockdown at Forest Hills
High School.
Ishrak Hossain, 16, was ordered
held on $10,000 bond or $5,000 cash
bail following his March 16 arraignment
in Queens Criminal Court,
according to records. He is due for
another hearing on March 28.
Students and teachers at Forest
Hills High School found themselves
in a “precautionary” lockdown for
several hours last Th ursday aft er
a reported shooting threat, police
reported.
Police received a call about the
threat at about 11 a.m. on March
15. According to law enforcement
sources, a student found a note
scribbled on a desk indicating that
another student had a gun.
Offi cers from the 112th Precinct
and other NYPD units responded to
the school located at 67-01 110th St.
“Soft lockdown at Forest Hills
High School. Everything is alright,
it’s just precautionary, kids and
teachers all ok,” tweeted Deputy
Inspector Robert Ramos, commander
of the 112th Precinct.
Ramos later tweeted that the
“individual responsible for today’s
hoax is in custody.”
As the lockdown went on, parents
and loved ones of Forest Hills students
— and even some of the pupils
themselves — took to social media
to share their concerns.
Police sources said the lockdown
ended just before 1 p.m., and students
were released from where
they were being held. Th ere was no
immediate word on whether anyone
was taken into custody, but police
said the investigation is ongoing.
“Th e safety of students and staff
is our top priority, and this serious
threat was immediately reported to
the NYPD who conducted a thorough
investigation and determined
it to be unfounded,” a Department
of Education spokesperson told Th e
Courier in a statement received at
2:27 p.m. “Th e temporary soft lockdown
has been lift ed and normal
dismissal procedures will be followed.”
Th e lockdown occurred a day aft er
thousands of students in Queens and
across the country held a walkout in
protest of gun violence on the onemonth
anniversary of the Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School
shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Administrator says two threats
led to Forest Hills lockdown
BY RYAN KELLEY
rkelley@ridgewoodtimes.com
Twitter @R_Kelley6
In response to the shooting threat that
sent Forest Hills High School into a lockdown
on March 15, the administration
held an impromptu meeting that evening
to fully explain the situation to parents,
and revealed that two threats were actually
received.
Th e fi rst was received the previous day,
when one-third of the student body participated
in the National Walkout Day
in support of the 17 shooting victims at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
in Parkland, Florida.
Principal Ben Sherman explained to the
crowd of about 100 people at the meeting
that a note scribbled onto a desk was discovered
on March 14 that suggested a student
was thinking about shooting up the
school. Th e note was investigated internally,
but the faculty couldn’t fi gure out who
wrote it or when it had been written, so the
desk was simply removed.
Th e following day, a new note appeared
in the same classroom on a new desk in
the same handwriting, Sherman said.
Th e second note was much more specific.
It acknowledged the removal of the fi rst
note and suggested that a gun was hidden
inside a locker in the locker room, and
that’s what prompted the school to contact
the NYPD and activate the lockdown
procedures.
“I take the safety of your children very
seriously,” Sherman said to the crowd as
he explained the timeline. “My number
one concern every day is that everyone
goes home safely at the end of the day, and
aft er we establish safety, the we can have
space for learning.”
By coincidence, Sherman said, the
NYPD had selected Forest Hills to be the
site of “random scanning” on the morning
of March 15; all the students had to walk
through metal detectors, and the second
note was found later.
Sherman explained that he activated the
building response team and teachers were
told to continue teaching during the lockdown.
Th e NYPD began investigating and
brought dogs in to help search the school,
Sherman said, but nothing was found. He
added that 1,000 lockers were searched
in the girls locker room and 700 were
searched in the boys locker room; police
stopped searching once a male student
confessed. Th e student was subsequently
taken into police custody.
Reportedly, Ishrak Hossain, 16, was
charged with making a terroristic threat
and criminal mischief. As of Friday,
arraignment information was not available
in court records.
According to Sherman, intelligence
from other students led to a number of
suspects, and the student who confessed
had no record of previous incidents, was
on track for graduation and on track for
college. Sherman said it’s believed that the
student did this to become more popular
A police van outside Forest Hills High School on March 15.
through Snapchat, believing other kids
would see it and share it.
“Th at’s kind of a sickness that is going
around with some of our teenagers about
what popularity means and what friendship
means,” Sherman said.
Later in the meeting, a parent spoke up
and said that should not have been accepted
as an excuse to write such a note, and
someone should follow up to make sure
that student receives counseling. Sherman
responded that the student has been suspended,
and is also facing charges from
the NYPD. Sherman added that he will
request that the student be transferred to
another school, as New York City public
schools are not allowed not to expel students.
Th e principal added that the NYPD
obtained a warrant to search the student’s
home.
Communication during the lockdown
became one of the main sources of frustration
for the parents at the meeting.
Parents mostly heard about the incident
from their children, who were allowed by
teachers to text and call them to let them
know. Yet, not having any offi cial information
from the school, the parents didn’t
know how severe the incident was or how
they should react.
It was reported that a message about the
incident had been posted on the Forest
Hills High School website as it was unfolding,
but that it had been removed later.
Th ere is presently a message about the
incident present on the site again.
In fact, it became clear that very few people
inside the building knew any of the
details when one student spoke up later
Photo by Ryan Kelley/QNS
in the meeting. She became emotional as
she described the feeling of being locked
inside a room with a view of the courtyard,
where police vehicles kept pulling up over
and over again.
At one point during the lockdown, she
said, there was a bang on the door of her
classroom and the teacher instructed the
students to get to the back of the room
because the teacher also had no idea what
was going on.
“I understand waiting to say something,
but you can’t expect students to sit in the
back of a classroom like sardines and wait
when they don’t know, because it’s not a
fun thing to sit through,” the student said.
Th ere were also disagreements about
whether or not the school should have
metal detectors installed. Some parents
believe it’s becoming more necessary,
while Sherman and other parents believe it
would be degrading to make students turn
over their belongings every single day.
Still, many parents did commend
Sherman for handling the situation to the
best of his ability, and he urged parents
to help him make the changes his school
needs. At a building with 4,000 students,
Sherman said, there are only nine safety
offi cers and not nearly enough security
cameras.
If parents write to the DOE and express
the need for more safety measures, he said,
the school is more likely to get them.
Student assemblies were scheduled for
March 16 to make all students aware of the
facts and discuss why students should not
spread dangerous notes, Sherman added.
Robert Pozarycki contributed to this
report.
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