Special Town Hall Meeting

by Nina Goldman

Imagine a high school student, maybe one of your classmates, lying in the street. It’s the middle of the night, and he or she is too drunk to take care of him or herself. Will you call the police, and risk getting in trouble? Will you leave him or her there, and risk his or her life? Despite our only being in high school, situations like this are painfully real for us, as nine such incidents have happened here since last June.

With this in mind, a town hall meeting was called on the 24th of February, where members of the community discussed underage drinking and substance abuse. The group of panelists ranged from the Mayor to the Assistant Superintendent to the Police Chief. The main goal of the meeting, according to Ashley Hanrahan, a Bronxville mother and the PTA President, who introduced the panel, was “to educate parents and students on the severity of the issues of teen drinking and substance abuse.”

According to Police Chief Christopher Satriale, Bronxville sees an alarming amount of underage drinking, especially from increasingly young students. As our Mayor Mary Marvin said, “The Village has wonderful, wonderful children, who sometimes make bad judgments.”

The evening was full of ideas on how to cut down on these “bad judgments,” for both parents and children. These ideas included putting up posters, having parents fully supervise parties, having parents be good influences, and making sure that no retailer sells alcohol to kids.

Along with these ideas was the constant reassurance of the panelists that they were not looking to punish students. “Our goal is never… to punish children,” says District Attorney Janet DiFiore, “Our goal is to educate.” In all of the nine cases of severe alcohol-based incidents that happened during the past nine months, no arrests were made.

This fact seemed to anger many parents, who stood up indignantly during the Q & A and asked why. The answer? The minors involved would not cooperate, so there was no concrete evidence to go on. Some parents also seemed to oppose the policy that no student misdemeanors off campus lead to any repercussions from the school. Comments from parents abounded, ranging from angry calls for action to tentative questions. One elderly man said that he felt he could better relate to the topic if he knew the exact stories about what occurred with the students. The police, however, declined to give names.

Despite a vocal parent body, the many students who also attended primarily stayed quiet. Only three rose during the Q & A session: two to attempt to explain why students were reluctant to call the police for help, and the other to request the beginning of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program in Bronxville. Their comments were met with applause, but little discussion, and the two girls actually had to stand up, raising their hands, through part of a speech, in order to get attention after they were interrupted.

Students who attended the meeting had mixed views. Amanda Rodriguez, a Junior, said, “I thought it was great that a lot of kids and parents showed up.” She also mentioned that the SFL has discussed having the police come talk to students, in order to make them “feel more safe” about things like calling for help.

William McCauley, a Sophomore, saw the meeting a little differently. “I think that this is stuff that we have heard before,” he said, though he quickly added that it is still a problem that needs attention. He also said that “we shouldn’t need to be looking to the school to do this.”

Should the school intervene? Should it be up to the parents? Or the students? While that remains to be seen, most people seemed to agree with Terence Barton, Principal of the High School, who deemed the event to be “a very beneficial evening.”