Seeking Exposé on School Security, Students Get a Lesson in the Law

Physical security at their school, West Islip High School, was spotty, the budding reporters believed: The main entrance was effectively wide-open; the back doors had locks, but students could prop them open with sticks or stones; surveillance cameras were antiquated; and the few guards assigned to patrol the perimeter, to make sure students were not cutting class, sometimes simply waved from their cars.

“It’s harder to get out of the building than it is to get in,” said Paula Pecorella, 17, the managing editor of Paw Prints, the student newspaper.

Security at North Babylon High School, by contrast, was said to be fortresslike – a theory Ms. Pecorella and her classmate Nicholas Krauss, 17, the paper’s features editor, proved accurate. But not in the way they had intended.

Instead of a splashy centerfold exposé they hoped would be a public service and garner “Story of the Year” honors in the Long Island Press high school journalism contest, their article was squashed. Instead of being praised, they were led from North Babylon High School in handcuffs and prosecuted for trespassing, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail.

The court proceedings finally ended last week, but there are still bruised feelings and recriminations all around.

“I certainly hope that high school kids get an opportunity to engage in the real-world issues, and part of our job is to help them do that in an appropriate and responsible way,” said Richard A. Simon, the West Islip schools superintendent. “I would say that their heart was in the right place, maybe, but they didn’t go about it in the best way, and I think from our end we’ve tried to address that.”

Though the Newtown school massacre was in the back of their minds, the students said their inspiration was what they saw as the folly of the $10 swipe cards offered to West Islip seniors as a way to gain access to the school via the back doors. Meanwhile, as a February editorial in Paw Prints put it, “why are students being presented the alternative of using the unlocked main entrance?”

On Feb. 22, two teenagers Ms. Pecorella knew from church who were not students at the school, pitched in with the reporting. They succeeded in entering West Islip High School, making laps around the first and second floors and exiting.

What occurred next, and who precipitated it, is at the heart of the continuing recriminations.

The students said they initially envisioned their article solely as an analysis of West Islip. Mr. Krauss said it was their adviser, Tina Schaefer, who “recommended to us that we should take the project to another school.”

Ms. Schaefer did not return phone calls. The superintendent, however, said Ms. Schaefer “categorically says it was not the case” that she made such a suggestion. “And I absolutely believe her,” he said.

Either way, on Feb. 26, Ms. Pecorella and Mr. Krauss drove to North Babylon High. According to a copy of the unpublished article provided by Ms. Pecorella, this is what happened:

“First, we entered through a set of doors toward the north end of the high school. Upon entering the building, we were immediately intercepted by clearly marked security guards wearing bright orange jackets, who asked for our school identification cards. After a quick excuse that our cards were left in the car, we were escorted back out the doors and were instructed not to re-enter without our cards.”

But re-enter they did.

“When we located a door not protected by security, we were sighted by a passing student who opened the door for us,” their account continued. “Upon entering the building, the next step was to make a full lap around the school as our first subjects had done in West Islip.”

Within moments, the students were stopped by a security guard, and taken to the dean’s office, where Ms. Pecorella said the principal told them they “would see the full extent of the security at the school.”

The two were taken by Suffolk County police officers to the First Precinct station in separate cars, searched, photographed and shackled to a table with other prisoners before being freed on $50 bail. That night, they collaborated to write their piece via Skype.

But it never ran.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/nyregion/seeking-expose-on-school-security-students-get-a-lesson-in-the-law.html?partner=rss&emc=rss