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Playland settlement divides readers

Tracey Princiotta — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:22:57 +0000

Reader reaction has been swift and vehement to the settlement Westchester County has tentatively reached with the family of a 7-year-old Connecticut boy who was killed on a ride at the county-owned amusement park. The boy, Jon-Kely Cassara, was killed on the Ye Old Mill, an indoor water ride, when he exited the car and was caught under water between two conveyer belts.

On one hand, several comments suggest that the parents are purely to blame for allowing their child to get on the ride, even though they couldn’t supervise him. Others say that the county rightfully is to blame based on a park employee’s testimony that the ride was insufficiently staffed.

Here’s the latest update by reporter Jorge Fitz-Gibbon. Then tell us what you think.

This is another reason why Westchester County should close or sell Playland. Playland’s time has come and long gone.

The family of this boy should be ashamed of themselves for making the county shell out taxpayer dollars for something that is purely the fault of the parents.

How dare you write such an insensitive heartless comment. These poor people live with the horror of their sons’ death everyday. ... Did you not read what the park’s former manager said? The fact that the ride was not suffieicently staffed? ... God bless that poor little boy and his family. May he rest in peace.

Perhaps had Playland been modernized, it could have had the same type of closed-circuit monitoring that car tunnels do, thereby allowing the ride to be shut down when the child got out of the ride. And that would have happened with both adequate supervision and modernization. Ergo: Playland’s fault.

Albany watchdog on reform today LIVE

Tracey Princiotta — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:14:58 +0000

Blair Horner, legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, the preeminent government watchdog group in New York, will join The Journal News and LoHud.com Editorial Board Wednesday at noon. He will discuss the outlook for reform in Albany in 2009.

To watch the session LIVE, go to the Editorial Spotlight channel. To comment or ask questions during the session, use the live blogging feature on the right side of the screen.
If you’ve missed any of the Editorial Board’s Spotlight sessions, including interviews with representatives from Westchester Medical Center and E.J. McMahon, another Albany watchdog on the state budget, go to Editorial Spotlight , click the “on demand” button and select the show from the list at the right.

The name game

Tracey Princiotta — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:22:12 +0000

A 17-year-old student at Fox Lane High School has been arrested by Bedford police this week on gun-related charges after police said she brought a loaded semiautomatic weapon into school. Even though the teen has been charged with a felony, police are refusing to release her name saying that she could be eligible for youthful offender status, something that only the courts can decide. Robert Freeman, executive director of the state’s Committee for Open Government, also called on the police to release the suspect’s name in a story today by reporters Shawn Cohen and Sean Gorman.

Readers who commented on the story were pretty evenly split whether they thought the police should release the student’s name. Here’s some of what they had to say on the topic:

It was a bad choice, as it is for The Journal News to pursue the name of this child. What will they accomplish by doing so? Let the legal system take over from here.

We are entitled by law to know what her name is. What is it with these cops that they can circumvent the freedom of information law? I have a student in that school, If anyone knows it, please post it here.

And finally, one person had this to say:

People reading this article do not know who she is, but you can bet your donuts 3/4 of the school knows—and rightfully so!

So what do you think? Should the police release the student’s name? Leave us a comment telling us what you think. And don’t forget to check back on LoHud.com for updates on this story.

Photo: Parents attend a meeting at Fox Lane High School in Bedford Dec. 8 after an incident at the school last Friday in which a loaded handgun was found in a student’s backpack. Jere Hochman, superintendent of the Bedford Central School District, Fox Lane High School Principal Robert Hendrickson and Bedford Police Chief Chris Menzel spoke about the incident.
Photo by Seth Harrison/The Journal News

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