Graffiti Threat Closes Mamaroneck High School

by Judy Silberstein

(March 3, 2008) Classes at Mamaroneck High School were abruptly called off early Monday morning and police were called in after threatening graffiti was found scrawled on an interior wall. Dr. Paul Fried, superintendent of schools, activated the district’s automated telephone messaging system at around 7 am to alert staff and students that school would be closed in response to “threats to our building and our students.”

A TV news van was among the few vehicles in the MHS parking lot Monday morning. Teachers and students, whose cars typically fill the lot, were called to stay home after threatening graffiti was found.

Westchester County’s bomb squad and bomb sniffing dogs checked the building, which was declared safe before 10 am. However, all academic, after school and evening activities remained cancelled until Tuesday.

“It’s a great way to communicate,” commented Jacqueline Pare, one of the high school parents who received the “reverse 911” message both on her cell phone and her land line. Her son “got a few hours of much needed sleep,” but “honestly, they should be providing more information,” she said.

Mamaroneck Village police spokesperson, Lt. James Gaffney (at right), and Supt. Paul Fried held a press conference on the incident.

Asked for more information at a press conference on Monday morning, Lt. Gaffney indicated details would not be released because of an “ongoing investigation.” Youth officers from Mamaroneck Village and Mamaroneck Town police departments are involved and will be contacting their sources, he said.

Dr. Fried said it was difficult to pinpoint the time of the incident, since the graffiti was in a corridor away from activities that took place at the school over the weekend. Throngs of parents and children were in the building all weekend for baseball tryouts, among other events. The threat could have been left anytime between Friday afternoon, when the hall was cleaned, and early Monday morning, when it was found.

“We are certainly very concerned,” said Dr. Fried, adding that the threat was “not characteristic of our students.” The district is prepared to “prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” those found to be responsible, he said.

Safety and security at the high school was the focus of a recent Mamaroneck School Board study session that aired recommendations from a district-wide task force. (See: Schools Consider MHS Security & Student Codes of Conduct.) Dr. Fried said his proposed budget, to be released on Tuesday, March 4, will include $60K to $80K to begin installing security cameras at MHS, as recommended by the task force, to combat graffiti, thefts, false alarms and other misbehavior.

The Mamaroneck schools have not experienced bomb scares recently, but Amy Levere, president of the Mamaroneck School Board, recalled that in 1997 there was a spate of telephoned threats at Murray Avenue School that required evacuating children from the building, once into the pouring rain.

“The school district acted quickly and responsibly," said Ms. Levere, reacting to Monday's event. "I truly regret that it happened. I hope they find the perpetrators soon,” she added. “Unfortunately we live in a world where there are bomb threats and scares at a number of local schools – we’re not different. But I wish the world were different.”

Ms. Levere admitted she has not been “a big believer in the [security] cameras, but my first thought here was ‘wouldn’t it have been nice to have had a camera.’ “

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