Ardsley school board member resigns
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- June
- 12
Ardsley Schools Trustee Stephanie Marquesano, who has been at the center of a controversy surrounding reported threats made by her son to students at the middle school, yesterday resigned her post at a board meeting.
In a one-sentence letter submitted to the Board of Education, Marquesano said she was resigning from the board because of personal reasons, Interim Superintendent Jason Friedman said this afternoon. The resignation is effective immediately, Friedman said, though the board won’t officially act on it until its next meeting in July.
Friedman would not comment further, but said the board will release a statement later today. Marquesano could not be reached for comment.
Marquesano’s resignation comes after a week of parental protests regarding what some saw as preferential treatment given to her son, a 14-year-old male student at Ardsley Middle School accused of threatening other students and the school.
The controversy began June 1 when Greenburgh police received a complaint that a 14-year-old male student reportedly had been heard saying that his “parents would be proud of him if he massacred the school.” He is also reported to have said that he would slit someone’s throat and take an ex-girlfriend and “drown her in a pool of weed” if she were to date someone else, according to the police report.
Some parents kept their children home from school over the next couple of days, angry that the officials did not immediately remove the boy.
“He was just given special privileges,” said Debi Fishman, who has children in the middle and high schools. “The community gathered together in reaction to threats that were made towards our children and our school. It was too much. That’s when the issue became unacceptable that the child was still allowed to remain in school.”
The middle school was also evacuated last week after students told administrators about threats made against the school on the Internet. A blog site entry on May 29, under the host name “ardsleysucks,†contained an entry titled “the-plot-to-bomb-ardsley.†Some parents believe Marquesano’s son is responsible for the posting, but Greenburgh police have so far been unable to identify the author.
After that incident, Marquesano asked that her son be allowed to finish out the semester at home, a request granted by school officials. At a special board meeting on Monday, parents said officials moved too slowly, endangering students. Several parents complained that their children had been the subject of bullying for years and at least one called for Marquesano’s resignation.
Nancy Barbato said she was one of 220 parents who signed a petition calling for her to step down.
“You have these images in your head of somebody walking on campus with a gun. Fourteen is not too young for this to happen,” said Barbato, a legal secretary who has children in the middle school and high school. “I have two children in the school I have to think about everyday.”
UPDATE: Barry Peek, a partner in Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein and an attorney for Marquesano, called The Hall Monitor this afternoon to clarify that Marquesano’s son was not removed from the school. He said Marquesano asked that he be allowed to finish out the semester at home, a request he said was granted by school officials. This post has been updated to reflect that.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 12:44 pm by Dwight R. Worley.
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My condolences to Mrs. Marquesano and her family. She likely wanted to protect her son from the consequences of stupid comments, like any parent would do. Her crime is all the day she has spent serving the community on the school board.
I think that Ms. Marquesano did the right thing in resigning. I’m certain that she would not be able to function effectively on the board with this going on. This way when she does ask for services for her child she will have to proceed through the same hoops as everyone else. She does deserve respect for this decision even if it seems as though it’s too late.
I hope her son gets the help he needs. I was bullied in school and there is nothing worse than worrying about being taunted, physically, and verbally assaulted when one is trying to do one’s schoolwork.
Good luck to the Marquesano family in trying to get things back on track.
Let me start off by saying that I do have a child in the 8th grade and have known the discussed family for several years.
My first question is what happened to the original complaint filed with the Greenburgh police that caused the original investigation that spread to the AMS on Monday June 2nd? Does anyone know if that case is still open? Has anyone heard from the family that filed the complaint?
The web site in question is apparently still being looked at to determine who is responsible for its existence, to my knowledge there has been no estimate as to how long it will take to make any determination, so this is still an open item.
There is no doubt from the stories we have all heard that various types of bullying/teasing goes on at the MS and the perception is that much of it goes on without any recourse. There is no one in this community that thinks this is okay. Can anyone say for certain that a disproportionate amount of this teasing/bullying was the responsibility of any one child?
There is no doubt that the child in question has had his share of problems. Those of us in the grade know that he has had detentions and in/out of school suspensions through out this school year. Perhaps there is a question as to how many times can a particular student be a disciplinary problem before other types of intervention are necessary, agreed…..but to say this child has not had ANY ramifications at school is just plain untrue.
It is a held belief in the community that the family has not sought any help for their child. How do you know that???
There was a concern that because the Mother of this child was on the school board, he may not be being dealt with appropriately…….she stepped down.
We need to stop reacting so emotionally and in some cases irrationally. There are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed in a calm concise way. Judge not lest ye be judged!