Last night, The Freeport Board of Education, in a brief planning session, without any public discussion, decided to move the school bond vote to sometime in March. Why the Board had decided that the public would reject their ill-conceived project is unknown. Apparently once again, in clear violation of the laws of NYS, the Board discussed the reasons for their rescheduling of the vote in secret sessions. The public portion of the meeting lasted fifteen minutes. Three members of the public were present. When one asked if she could ask a question, President Grover smiled and said no.

Pregnant, by its absence at this first official Board meeting of the year, was any discussion of the gang related problems at the high school during the week before Christmas. The Board had no questions of the Superintendent regarding the gang related slashing of a high school student and the resulting threats of retribution by members of the Latino gang, the MS13. As usual, with the apparent complicity of Mayor Glacken and the highest echelons of the Freeport Police Department, the public was kept in the dark.

FreeportNYNews has determined that during the week of December 13th a male Hispanic Freeport student was slashed with a small knife. Members of the school security staff and others have reported that he was slashed from his ear to his throat, although the exact length of the wound could not be determined. It appears that this attack occurred outside of  the high school. The parents of this child refused to press charges, as they were in fear of retaliation and retribution. On Monday, December 20th, Deputy Chief Burdett claimed that the victim was not slashed with a knife and had received only a scratch. He said the police had everything under control. He said the police would be prepared for any planned gang retaliation scheduled for the end of the week. I asked Burdett why the public wasn't being advised that the MS13 had threatened a drive-by shooting at the high school. He advised me that the police were taking the threat seriously.

On Wednesday, December 22nd, the police were out in force at the high school. There were blue and whites and unmarked cars outside of the school. Students reported that there were uniformed, detectives and plain clothes police inside the school. There were police in the parking lot in the back of the school. There were police patrolling the street around the school. There were police cars and police officers by the pond down the street from the high school. Freeport's fine canine corps was the job. Uniformed police could be seen standing inside the front doorway of the high school.

Parents interviewed by FreeportNYNews were furious that they were never advised by the school authorities, the police or the Mayor that Freeport High School was going to be under siege. One parent said, "They can send me the student code of conduct, but when a gang threatens a drive-by shooting, nobody tells me anything." One staff member commented about the lack of notification by saying, "What do you expect? Northover (the high school principal) watches the students smoking cigarettes and dope on school property and looks the other way. Why would you expect them to tell anybody anything?"