3
Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Pittsburgh shooting leaves many heartbroken and scared
By KATELYN CORDERO
[email protected]
Rabbi Larry Freeman of Temple
Beth Jacob in Newburgh is brought to
tears when asked about the shooting
in Pittsburgh, a community he was a
part of. The shooting at the Tree of Life
Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh
hit especially hard for Freeman being this
is where he was from prior to coming to
Newburgh.
“I keep seeing friends on the news,”
said Freeman. “It’s awful and it’s
personal, a lot of people are shaken. We
always assumed there was a certain level
of hate, but in the last two years there has
been an increase.”
For Freeman the attack in Pittsburgh
was an attack on his home. The community
in Pittsburgh has roots that go back 100
years.
“In Pittsburgh it’s a neighborhood, its
your community,” said Freeman. “You
see the streets as your home more than
your own house. When you think about
someone going into the synagogue,
it’s your house they are walking
into.”
The congregation at Temple Beth Jacob
is shaken. They fear what happened in
Pittsburgh can happen anywhere in the
country.
Max Locke, 14, of Temple Beth Jacob,
the great grandson of a holocaust survivor
felt confused and hurt by the attack.
Photo courtesy Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney
Rabbi Larry Freedman (c) is flanked by elected officials at a recent Memorial Service at
Temple Beth Jacob: (l . r) Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, Assemblyman James Skoufis,
City Councilman Jonathan Jacobson and Mayor Torrance Harvey.
“I feel horrible for two reasons,” said
Max. “It was an attack against a specific
group of people. I don’t understand how
someone is that disgusted in us enough to
do that. I don’t know what we did to them
to deserve this, because we haven’t done
anything.”
Max’s mother Renee Locke felt despair
when she heard the news.
“When my grandfather came here he
was fleeing the hatred for the American
dream,” said Renee. “I am so glad he’s
gone, because he would have been
terrified if he saw what was happening.
There’s such a great sense of despair and
I fear the worst is yet to come for all the
groups.”
The City of Newburgh Police
Department is working to make sure the
community is protected from such an
attack. Police Chief Doug Solomon sent
a letter to congregations in Newburgh
to invite them to participate in the
Community Response to Active Shooter
Events (CRAVE) program.
The program is part of the Advanced
Law Enforcement Rapid Response
Training (ALERRT), a nationally
recognized program that trains officers
and civilians to react in emergency
situations.
Detective Erik Eltz will be conducting
the training sessions with congregations.
Each training session will be about an
hour long with a building risk assessment
and a lecture with questions and answers
at the house of worship participating.
There will be training focusing on the
basic principles and concepts so that
people understand what to do in a time
of crisis.
“It’s a very scary time we live in where
places that were a sanctuary like schools
and places of worship are no longer,” said
Solomon. “Its disturbing, but we have to
adjust, we constantly have to reinvent
ourselves, we can never get comfortable.”
If you would like more information
on the CRAVE program you can contact
Detective Eltz at eeltz@cityofnewburgh-
ny.gov or call 845-561-3131.
School district hosts town hall safety meeting
By KATELYN CORDERO
[email protected]
The Newburgh Enlarged City School District
(NECSD) recently hosted the final of a series of town hall
meetings on public safety within the school district. The
meetings gave parents and members of the community
the opportunity to speak with administrators about their
concerns on school safety.
“We do a number of things in the form of engagement
in the town. That is something we have consistently
done over the past few years,” said Superintendent Dr.
Roberto Padilla. “This is a face to face town hall, so we
do online town halls as well. We’ll continue to use those
mechanisms to include as many community stakeholders
as possible.”
The meeting highlights the changes the district made
in terms of safety as well as preventative measures such
as hiring social workers, counselors and psychiatrists.
In the past three years the school has added nine mental
health workers in the elementary level, a counselor at
every grade at the Middle School and a school counselor
to every class team at Newburgh Free Academy (NFA)
Main Campus.
“Unfortunately these adults that have gone into the
supermarket and schools to cause harm are struggling
with mental health issues,” said Padilla. “We see our
role at supporting children where they are. We have
them from Pre-K through 12th grade and while they
are with us we want to make sure we are allocating the
critical systems to support them and how they go about
managing conflict. We are all going to experience conflict
that’s never going to go away but how we respond to
conflict is critical.”
The school started looking at social media to keep an
eye on all potential threats to the districts safety whether
they originate on or off campus. One of the challenges
Padilla addressed is cyberbullying.
“The issues of cyberbullying are real and certainly
monopolizes the time of our administrators,” said Padilla.
“So something that happens on a Friday night or a
Saturday night, definitely makes its way into the building
Monday morning. So sometimes our administrators come
in with a set plan for that day or that week only to learn
they now have to deal with an issue that happened on the
weekend outside of school.”
The question of security at school entrances was a
question Padilla was looking to discuss with parents.
He asked the crowd for their opinion on metal detectors
at elementary schools, and the opinion of armed police
officers at every school. He made his opinion on the topic
clear.
“I don’t think elementary school students should have
to go through metal detectors to learn,” said Padilla.
“I believe all visitors and potentially staff should walk
through metal detectors if they were to be placed at
schools.Schools need to be a welcoming place, but right
now we have a lot of parents that are concerned. They
want their children in a building that is secure.”