46 THE QUEENS COURIER • KIDS & EDUCATION • MARCH 29, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
kids & education
Queens pols: Give public school principals power to lock front doors
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
edavenport@qns.com / @QNS
Following the tragic shooting in
Parkland, Florida, in February, two
Queens lawmakers are off ering a potential
solution to keeping schools safer.
Assemblyman Edward C. Braunstein
and Councilman Paul Vallone are calling
on the Department of Education
(DOE) to allow school principals the
discretion of locking the doors to the
school while classes are in session.
“Current DOE policy requires that
school principals keep the front door of
their school unlocked during the day.
Th is allows an individual to enter the
building before a determination can be
made if they represent a danger or not.
Th is deviates from the practice at many
private schools where visitors must ring
a bell and announce themselves before
being permitted entry,” Braunstein said.
“Granting public school principals this
same authority to confi rm whether or
not an individual represents a threat
before allowing them into a school could
prevent dangerous incidents from taking
place. It is a change we must consider.”
Currently, the DOE prohibits school
principals from keeping the front door
locked during the day.
Vallone cited the recent incident at
P.S. 184, when a suspicious man reportedly
entered the school, as an example
of why school doors should be locked
while classes are in session.
“When it comes to our students’ safety,
we need to be proactive, not reactive,
and principals should have the
autonomy to decide when they think
it is appropriate to preemptively lock
their school entrances,” Vallone said.
“Incidents like the one at P.S. 184 clearly
show that our students are not as
safe as we think and changes need to be
made to make sure that they can learn
and grow in the safest environment possible.
Th is request is just the fi rst step in
a series of changes that must be made.
Th is must remain our top priority from
here on out as we lead the charge for
safety in our schools.”
Prodigy theater producer brings innovation to the industry
BY RYAN KELLEY
rkelley@qns.com
Twitter @R_Kelley6
With an already impressive list of
accomplishments in the theater industry
before even graduating from college,
one New Yorker with Queens ties is now
bringing technological innovation to the
table.
Alexander Baron, a student at Penn
State University and the son of Howard
Beach attorney Scott Baron, is developing
what he calls a social network to
bring “theater anywhere, anytime, to anyone.”
Th at stuck as the slogan for the app,
Broadway Connected, and it is only a few
weeks away from its offi cial launch on the
App Store, Baron said.
“I want that kid that’s in Seattle dying
to know about a certain area of theater
but has no access to it to get onto the
app,” Baron said. “I want to create technology
that my 13- and 15-year-old self
would utilize.”
Baron said he wants to inspire the next
generation of theater through Broadway
Connected, though the 21-year-old can
be described as that himself. When he
was 16, Baron wrote and produced his
own play, “Love Behind Bars,” which
premiered at the Manhattan Repertory
Th eater. At age 17, he was the executive
producer of an off -Broadway show,
“Vote For Me,” and at 18 he was a co-producer
of the pre-Broadway show “Gotta
Dance.”
Th e theater entrepreneur has been
working with a team of app developers
for nearly two years to create Broadway
Connected, which he said will “allow collaboration
to increase, as well as effi ciency.”
One of the main features of the app
is a news feed of stories aggregated from
the top media companies in the business
that keeps users up to date with the theater
world.
Th e app includes a profi le page for
users to share their personal experience
in theater and interact with other users.
Th ere will also be a “question of the day”
that comes with promotional rewards for
users who engage with the app regularly,
as well as a calendar complete with all the
upcoming industry events.
“I’m very excited. I think that this is a
very needed thing,” Baron said. “We’re at
a crossroads in the industry where a lot of
change is happening.”
Baron added that he is most excited to
develop his voice in the industry through
Broadway Connected and create positive
change. He emphasized that it will
not do theater news journalism, rather
he wants to create a relationship and
work together with content producers
to explore original content that has not
been done before.
Baron is currently a junior at Penn State
and is studying in New York City for the
semester, though he plans to return to
the University Park campus in the fall
to fi nish his degree. In the meantime, he
is focused on the fi nal stages of the app
development.
Broadway Connected is currently available
in a preview format on the App Store
ahead of its launch this year.
Photo courtesy of Alexander Baron
Photo: Shutterstock
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