FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM DECEMBER 27, 2018 • KIDS & EDUCATION • THE QUEENS COURIER 35
kids & education
MORE EYES NEEDED
F.H. principal seeks more surveillance to stop disputes
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@cnglocal.com
@QNS
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
Th e Courier. “I’ve got 24 exits in this
building.”
Th e high school has 4,000 students
attending and only 80 cameras, which
has led to students assaulting one another
and getting into fi ghts 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 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.
“Th is school, along with other schools
in Queens have been underfunded grossly,”
Bergstein said. “Even if we use a lowend
estimate, over a ten year 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.”
Just this year alone, FHHS has been
defunded by $5 million, and it is not
alone.
Other top schools in Queens such
as Benjamin Cardozo High School in
Bayside also face the same issue.
On Dec. 11, a student at Cardozo was
slashed in the face followed by the school
going to lockdown for several hours and
cell phone footage circulating. Th ere calls
for metal detector and other safety measures
to be taken aft er the incident.
“If you’re a school with a successful
graduation rate, 10 percent of your budget
is removed annually and redistributed
to schools that are failing,” Sherman said.
Th e DOE did not respond to a request
for comment on the matter of incidents
at Forest Hills High School, or a separate
request regarding the need for more surveillance
cameras.
File photo/THE COURIER
Forest Hills High School
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