Gov. Hochul requires school districts to have student on Board of Education

Long Island Morning Edition

Drivers in the Town of Hempstead last year were hit with nearly 40,000 more school bus camera tickets than drivers in Suffolk County, despite having half the population. Payton Guion reports in NEWSDAY that BusPatrol America, a Virginia-based company that runs the school bus camera programs, recorded 140,456 violations in Hempstead in 2023, compared with 103,532 in Suffolk. The town’s population is 793,409, while Suffolk is home to more than 1.5 million people.

A number of factors likely contributed to Hempstead's higher ticketing rate, but town communications director Brian Devine said the two biggest reasons were simple: Hempstead is denser and its camera program is newer. BusPatrol also said denser areas tend to see more tickets. Devine added that the number of tickets issued this year is down compared with last year, which is consistent with other BusPatrol programs as they mature.

Newsday analyzed the nearly quarter of a million tickets issued last year, providing the most comprehensive picture to-date of the bus camera programs in Suffolk and Hempstead town. Programs officials say bus cameras are necessary to protect children but critics have called it a "cash grab."

"The passing of school buses is such a problem in our state and nationally," said David Christopher, executive director of the advocacy group New York Association for Pupil Transportation. "This is just one tool of many that we can employ to keep kids safe. People are driving aggressively and they’re driving distracted, and kids are in danger when that happens."

Nearly 250,000 school bus camera tickets were issued in Suffolk County and the Town of Hempstead in 2023, according to a Newsday analysis of data provided by the county and town.

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September is the peak month for mosquitoes and West Nile virus, but they got an early start on Long Island this year. Lisa L. Colangelo reports in NEWSDAY that health officials reported larger numbers of infected mosquitoes compared with recent years, as well as more human cases of West Nile and biting mosquitoes overall in Suffolk County in July and August, possibly setting the stage for additional cases of disease later this year.

Even more troubling to experts is the growing spread in the Northeast of eastern equine encephalitis, another mosquito-borne disease that can be more deadly. For the first time in five years, an EEE-infected mosquito sample was found in Suffolk County, officials reported Friday.

While there have been no human EEE cases in New York, they have been documented in New Jersey and Massachusetts. A man from New Hampshire died last month after contracting the virus and developing the disease, and concerns about transmission have led some New England towns to recommend 6 p.m. curfews on outdoor activities this month to avoid infected mosquitoes.

For now, the bigger threat in New York is the West Nile virus, especially for people over the age of 50.

Experts suggest people avoid outdoor areas when mosquitoes are biting. If you have to be outside, wear long sleeves and long pants. Use insect repellent registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and follow label directions carefully. Eliminate standing water on your property, which can serve as mosquito breeding grounds.

Scott Campbell, chief of the Suffolk County Health Department’s Arthropod-Borne Disease Laboratory tells Newsday that the rainy spring on Long Island provided rich breeding grounds for mosquitoes, leading to high populations earlier than usual.

And the hot, relatively dry summer led mosquitoes and birds to share limited water sources.

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Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed a bill into law that requires all New York school districts with a high school to include a student on the board of education, a move praised by some school officials on Long Island, where students already have taken a seat. Darwin Yanes reports in NEWSDAY that the legislation signed this past Thursday affects all school districts and BOCES in the state except those in New York City. The districts will now be required to establish a process to include at least one student on the board who has attended a high school in that district for at least a year.

The student will not have a vote on the board but rather serve as an advisory member. NYS lawmakers had been pushing the bill, saying the position would give students new opportunities to engage with their boards and build skills and habits of civic engagement.

They “will learn the power of their own voices, and the importance of listening to and engaging respectfully with those who may have a different point of view, while bringing valuable and unique perspective to board decision making,” State Sen. Shelley B. Mayer (D-Yonkers), who sponsored the bill, said in a statement.

Robert Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, said it’s always good to have a student voice at the table, especially when discussing policies that will affect the students the district is serving.

“It’ll be interesting to get feedback in a couple years about how it goes and see what benefits came about as the results of the policy change at a state level,” he said.

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The former aide to two governors accused of being an agent for China was part of a critical deal with the communist country to bring protective gear and ventilators to New York early during the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael Gormley reports in NEWSDAY that Linda Sun, of Manhasset, was among those inside then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive chamber in early 2020 working on the deal, which resulted in the donation of much-needed masks, surgical gowns and ventilators to New York.

Later, the state was billed more than $700,000 by a company owned by a friend of Sun's husband that shipped the ventilators to the United States, according to federal records reviewed by Newsday.

Last Tuesday, Sun was accused of working as an unregistered foreign agent for China in a scheme with her husband, Christopher Hu, to enrich themselves, according to the indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In 2020, Sun was seen by co-workers as an ambitious 30-something with a political science degree from Barnard College and a master’s degree from Columbia University. Her roles included being the Asian outreach director for Cuomo and handling global business development.

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The Southold Town 9/11 Memorial Committee will hold their Remembrance Ceremony on the Anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks this coming Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 6 p.m. in Jean Cochran Park on Peconic Lane in Peconic. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that Riverhead’s annual Sound Park Heights Association’s 9/11 Vigil will be held this Wednesday at 6 p.m., with a memorial procession starting at Marine Street in Reeves Park and concluding at the memorial at the intersection of Park Road and Sound Avenue.

Earlier this coming Wednesday, The Town of Riverhead will hold a 10 am prayer ceremony at its World Trade Center Memorial Park at the corner of Riley and Edwards Avenue in Calverton.

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Social media has become such a menace for kids that the NYC health commissioner is recommending parents don’t give their children cell phones till at least age 14. Carl Campanile reports in THE NY POST that pediatricians also should make talking to parents and children about social media part of check-ups, says NYC Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan.

“Adolescents using social media have a greater risk of experiencing poor mental health, including symptoms of depression and anxiety,” wrote Vasan and NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Chief Medical Officer Michelle Morse in a Sept. 5 letter to doctors and other medical professionals.

“Recommend parents and caregivers delay giving children a smartphone, or similar device that can access social media, until age 14, and then reassess based on current evidence of harms and the child’s strengths and needs,” the health commissioner stated. “When children begin to travel more independently in NYC, ask parents to start children with a phone that does not have the ability to access social media,” the department’s doctors added. Pediatricians also should discuss the perils of over exposure to smart phones and social media with parents and their children as part of a “family media plan” to curb or prohibit use, according to the letter.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing for a ban on smart phones in schools and currently conducting a “listening tour” to see how it can be done.

She and the NYS legislature approved a law in June to give parents more control over social media usage on apps such as TikTok and Instagram.

Last year, Pierson High School in Sag Harbor instituted a new cellphone policy that requires students to put their phones away in locked bags, called Yondr pouches, at the beginning of the school day. The phones stay in the pouches until the security team unlocks them at the end of the day.