Series of incidents sparks criticism of Riverhead school officials

Riverhead Central School District officials opened an investigation after drawings of swastikas were found on desks at Riverhead High School last Thursday, according to a letter from Superintendent Augustine Tornatore.

“Following a thorough investigation, appropriate disciplinary action, if warranted, will be taken,” he wrote to the district community.

School officials didn’t specify how many desks were marked with the symbol, which is used as iconography of hate, specifically toward the Jewish community. They also didn’t specify whether they were aimed at any individual or group in particular.

Riverhead High School principal Sean O’Hara interviewed the students known to be sitting at the desks in question. The parents of those students were also notified, and the symbols were removed from the desks. The superintendent’s letter states that Mr. O’Hara reached out to the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center for “resources and support.”

“It goes without saying that this behavior is reprehensible and has no place in our community,” Mr. Tornatore wrote. “The district has strict policies and has zero tolerance for any behavior, whether verbal, physical, or in any form, that is derogatory, abusive, racist or in any way defamatory.”

This is the latest of several incidents at the high school since the 2023-24 school began less than a month ago. The first incident occurred just three days into the new school year, on Sept. 8, when one student sprayed another with pepper spray. Residue from the pepper spray also compromised air quality in the hallway, affecting other students and security guards. Those impacted required medical treatment.

The second incident occurred at a Sept. 9 football game, where four, cousins between the ages of 5 and 7, were called a racial slur by a high school and middle school student, as well as a third, out-of-district student. Their great-grandfather, Robert Brown, brought the incident before the Board of Education at its Sept. 12 meeting. At a Town Anti-Bias Task Force meeting the following week, the organization discussed ways to support the district.

Town Police Chief David Hegermiller attended that meeting with other local officials and community members, including the mothers of the children involved , and said he planned to add two full-time school resource officers to the district, one at the middle school and one at the high school. 

There have been requests for heightened security from both parents and students for months. On March 28, a Riverhead High School student was assaulted, robbed and stabbed on his way home by five individuals in ski masks armed with a knife. Three days later, a 14-year-old student was arrested after bringing more than a dozen .22 caliber bullets to school, an incident that prompted a lockdown that some parents said had terrified their children. On April 12, another RHS student, 15-year-old Preston Gamble, was shot at the Calverton Hills condominium complex and later transported by family members to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, where he died. No arrests have been made and an investigation is ongoing.

Over the summer, the school installed 125 new surveillance cameras and updated their  software. Other security measures the school has taken include access control devices at targeted entrances and exits throughout the district, as well as door sensors to prevent unauthorized building entrances and exits.

On Tuesday night, the Board of Education held a special meeting which was attended by various members of the Eastern Long Island chapter of the NAACP, including its president, Lawrence Street. 

In 2021 Mr. Street was on a district/community task force for the district to develop a Diversity Equity and Inclusion plan using the New York State Education Department’s culturally responsive sustaining education framework. In a letter he read aloud Tuesday, Mr. Street said that the district hasn’t met their obligation for the policies and practices included in that plan. If the district had followed the plan, he said, these incidents could have been prevented.

“At that time, Riverhead School District, in consultation with Eastern Suffolk BOCES, wanted to be inclusive of community and student voices and the district’s DEI plan was completed and presented to the Riverhead Board of Education approved in 2022,” Mr. Street said. “However, the district did not comply with the task force developed by the DEI plan.”

Mr. Street questioned the board on whether they have continued consulting with Eastern Suffolk BOCES on the DEI plan, and why a cross-cultural committee task force, which helped with the creation of the plan, was dissolved.

“Public schools cannot meet their legal obligations unless they place DEI at the center of their work,” he said.

Mr. Tornatore responded that district officials are doing the best they can in trying to prevent these incidents from happening.

“Unfortunately, some people say things that are ignorant, that are stupid, and some people say things that are hurtful,” he said. “Any time that we’ve been involved in a situation where I have the power to be able to either ban somebody because of that behavior or suspend them, I have been doing that, but I also do not have any jurisdiction over any of those parents and how [the students] are behaving off of school grounds. “

The meeting closed with Mr. Tornatore and Mr. Street making plans to meet and discuss how to better implement the DEI plan.

For more information on the district’s Equity in Education plan visit riverhead.net/district/boe-adopted-district-plans.

The next Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Oct. 10.