Vandals trash middle school greenhouse
Tresspassers sabotage cherished gardening program at Stephen A. Halsey in Rego Park
Vandals ripped panels off of a greenhouse built by middle school students. Photo courtesy of Mike Zevon
BY MAX PARROTT
Intruders have squashed
the fruits of Stephen A. Halsey
Junior High School’s labor.
From the spring through
the summer, vandals have
repeatedly broken into the
student-built greenhouse
in Rego Park, left behind
marijuana paraphernalia
and destroyed parts of the
structure and plants inside.
“Long story short, people
have been breaking into the
garden by hopping the fence
and using the greenhouse as a
shelter to get stoned,” said the
club’s facilitator Chris Weiss.
Weiss said that as a result
of the damages, the club may
have to completely dismantle
the greenhouse, which would
level the school’s estimated
$2,000 investment in the
building and would mean that
the club would not be able to
use it in the fall. This would
be a major disappointment
for Weiss’s student group,
the Green Team, a cherished
institution at the school.
“I’m at a loss. I’m torn.
Personally I’m very angry
that this happened, but I feel so
heartbroken for my kids,” said
Weiss. “For them to see their
efforts destroyed so brazenly
and so carelessly, that’s going
to be a very upsetting life
lesson for them.”
After breaking a lock off
the greenhouse door, the
trespassers recently ripped
the walls and ceiling panels
off the building and destroyed
the shelving by sitting on
it. Weiss said that he’s had
to clean up items including
rolling papers, discarded
cigar ends, the ends of joints
and leftover munchies.
The 112th police precinct
reportedly told the school that
they can try to step up their
patrol of the area at night, but
without any other evidence,
there’s nothing further they
can do.
The interlopers seem
to be hopping over a low
point in the fence around
the school’s garden, which
Principal Vincent Suraci has
been trying to fix. Weiss is
also hoping that Suraci can
get some security cameras
for the area, but until they
are able to implement these
safeguards and test if they’re
effective, the school will have
to suspend or take down
the greenhouse.
In the meantime, the club
is likely going to have to limit
their activities to indoors.
Over the year and a half since
it was founded, the club has
taken on some ambitious
botanical and beautification
projects that have included
redesigning the facade of
the building, creating a
makeshift hydroponics
system and starting a farmto
table program.
Part of the club’s success
is getting kids out of trouble
and into gardening. Weiss
said that a handful of students
who were getting repeated
suspensions have turned their
behavior around once they
became enthusiastic about
gardening and “taken pride in
the school and themselves.”
“To me the loss is the
inability to use it with the
kids. Listen, I could donate
blood until we get the $2,000
back,” Weiss said. “I love
watching them participate
in these kinds of things
where they’re getting their
hands dirty or they’re tying
up a plant to support it or
when they’re amazed that
the flower turns into a fruit
on the vine. That’s the gift
of it.”
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