1972-02-10

              FARMINGDALE.
FARMIN8ULE OB! F A R M l N O O » L t P U B L I C L IB
27 4 M A IN
r A a v i N •. ' i i NY M 7 3 5 Oc
WHERE THE HISTORY OF YOUR COMMUNITY IS RECORDED WEEKLY
An Official Newspaper of the Incorporated Village of Farmingdale — Serving Greater Farmingdale. Bethpage and Melville
V o l . 9 NO. 2 5 Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735 • Published by THE OBSERVER, INC., Box 146, Farmingdale, N. Y. Thursday, February 10, 1972
Students Fight at
Farmingdale High
Trouble came to Farmingdale Senior High School on
Thursday morning. The exact number is not known,
but at least 100 students, half of them white, the other
Mack, were involved in an ugly brawl in the commons.
It could have been called just that - a brawl. But since
blacks and whites were involved, it gets a much uglier
label - a race riot.
HEART FUND MARCHING ORDERS: Captains of the Farmingdale Heart Fund Drive are given
samples of volunteer envelopes by Sam Caracci ( left) as Fund Drive chairman Marge Pfoh is ex­plaining
method of collections. The captains shown above are from left to right: Larry Grella, Frank
Hynes, honorary chairman, Cornelius Van Oers, Charlotte Finn and Danny Lishansky, president of
Farmingdale High School Key CI ib. Not shown but also participating .* s captains are ' arol LaPlaca,
Sal Tese and Frank Zito.
PRICE Keeps Its Fingers
Crossed Until April Comes
The people of PRICE, Far-mingdales
attempt to curb drug
abuse, are keeping their fingers
crossed until April when new
State aid is expected to help
cover expenses of the program.
Two weeks ago, m a story
published in the OBSERVER, the
funds necessary to run the
program in Farmingdale on a full
time basis were quoted by
PRICE as amounting to $ 3,000.- a
month.
The biggest item of the ex­penses
$ 2,000.- are salaries to
professional personnel who are
needed if the program is to be
successful. Other expenses
consist of rent ($ 250.- a month)
and funds to run the various
programs.
As was stated before, PRICE
had to institute cut backs in
expenses in order to survive the
time during which State aid was
withheld. The Youth Center of
PRICE is presently closed
Wednesday evenings and on
Saturdays and the salaried staff
has volunteered to stay on either
without pay or with only partial
payment.
PRICE is continuing its
membership drive on a daily
basis. The youths are covering
Farmingdale door- to- door.
Adults from PRICE are also
approaching the business men in
town for donations to " Share in
our Youth". These monies are
necessary to keep the Youth
Center open for the next few
months until the state allocates
money for the coming fiscal year.
Thus far, PRICE has collected
approximately $ 900.00 but they
still have a long way to go. The
cold weather and snow has im­peded
some of their progress. In
addition to personal checks from
priests from St. James, donations
have been made from the Far­mingdale
Jewish Center,
Women's Club of Farmingdale
and many merchants in Far-,
mingdale and South Far­mingdale.
Monday night, February 14,
Ron Swoboda, famous baseball
player, will visit PRICE'S Youth
Center at 585 Main Street, Far­mingdale,
from 8: 00 to 10: 00 p. m.
He will hold a rap session with the
teens about drugs. Everyone is
welcome to come and meet this
popular figure in the sports
world.
When racial trouble hits a
school the size of Farmingdale
High, with a student population of
3,200 and a floor space of ten
acres, then there is no telling
what could happen. Principal
John McClellan decided to close
the school and sent the students
home in staggered groups. About
70 policemen were present.
" It could have been worse,"
commented a friendly uniformed
guard at the entrance door, " but
it was pretty terrible anyhow."
" We will open the school again on
Monday," said the principal, " but
at the slightest outburst of
violence we will close again."
As the riot quieted down, the
leaders of the two warring groups
had a meeting and we were told
that both sides promised to keep
things calm.
The foOis of ih « events—- 3n
Thursday may have been planted
already last summer, when there
were altercations during the
Youth Council summer program
and special measures were taken
when school opened in the fall.
Raising antagonisms seemed to
have been reduced, and it ap­peared
that all concerned
preferred to talk things out
rather than settle matters with
violence.
The spark that led to Thur­sday's
melee was lit Wednesday
night. It was a chain of unhappy
coincidences. It started when a
tenth grade black girl in special
education, who is suffering from
depressions and uncontrollable
fits, accused a white boy of
calling her names. As she went
into a tantrum she kicked the
boy, who retaliated by pushing
her. This was witnessed by her
brother, who in turn attacked the
white boy. This led to a free -
swinging brawl that was over
within 20 minutes, however.
The school officials took all
precautions to prevent renewed
outbursts of violence when school
opened Thursday morning. But it
happened anyway. As school
officials and plainclothesmen
talked to a group of 30 black
students emerging from a school
bus, two other black students
walked by towards the commons
and the big fight started.
Immediately, the other
students got involved and for a
while really looked bad. Police
responded to a call for help and
soon were able to break up the
fight. There were no reports of
serious injuries but ambulances
were at the scene to treat minor
physical damages.
School officials are greatly
disturbed about a recurrence
of the problem. " We have only
between 70 and 80 black students
in our school," one school official
remarked, "^ here is basically no
love lost between them and the
rest of the students, but in the
past we have been able to talk
things down. We are hopeful this
can be done again in the future."
But only the future can tell. As
frightening as this outburst of
violence must be to everyone
involved, it seems that the school
administration is prepared for
any emergency that may come
up in the future. As the guard at
the entrance gate said: " It sure
could have been worse."
Fund Record Topped
Farmingdale went over the
top in the recently- completed
campaign of the United Fund
" of Long Island. According to
Gregory Carman, the
Community Campaign
Chairman, who is a member
of the law firm of Carman,
Callahan and Carman, 101 per
cent of goal was achieved.
" This is the first time that
Farmingdale exceeded its
goal in seven years of cam­paigning,"
Mr. Carman said.
Observer/ Tribune Group Introduces Community Log
Starting with this week's issue, all five members of the
OBSERVER TRIBUNE group of community
newspapers are adding a new weekly section called
Community Log. Initially consisting of four pages in the
center of each newspaper, it will eventually become a
separate second section.
The Community Log is a weekly calendar of events that
is unique with the OBSERVER TRIBUNE newspapers.
It will contain as complete and comprehensive a list of
scheduled community activities, meetings and social,
cultural, political and athletic events as can be assem
bled. The Community Log thus becomes a record of the
life of each of the communities covered by the OB­SERVER
TRIBUNE newspapers, a monitor of their
pulse beat, an almanac of the weeks ahead.
The Community Log's position in the center of the
newspapers, and its eventual separation from the main
section, will facilitate saving it as a guide to events,
places and dates. This not only benefits readers, but also.
advertisers, who not only reach a vastly increased
audience by the inclusion of the Community Log in five
newspapers, but also gain additional exposure for their
sales messages because of its reference character. In its
final form, the Community Log will be a supplement to
all five OBSERVER TRIBUNE newspapers in
magazine format, with feature articles and stories
originating locally in addition to the calendar listings.
All institutions, organizations or other groups
operating on the local level are not only invited, but
strongly urged to make use of the OB­SERVER
TRIBUNE Community Log. Since this is a
public service on our part, we will never charge for it.
Not for the publication of pictures, either, which are
always welcome.
Events of strictly commercial character, however,
held with a profit motive in mind or undertaken by profit -
making organizations, cannot be considered. For
basically non - profit organizations or groups, such as
churches, temples or veterans organizations, exceptions
will be made if they run a dance, rummage sale or the
like. And if they want to attract special attention, the
Community Log has a special low rate fr- advertising
such happenings.
The deadline for inclusion of publicity and/ or ad­vertising
in the Community Log is Monday noon of the
week of publication. Publicity chairmen, please take
notice: Monday noon. No exceptions can be made. Mail
or deliver your material to the Levittown Tribune, 2946
Hempstead Turnpike, Leviitown, N. Y. ii756 if it con­cerns
the Sea ford, Wantagh, the Bellmores, Merricks
and Levittown- East Meadow area; to the Observer
Newspapers, 115 Front Street, Massapequa Park, N. Y.
11762, if it comes from Farmingdale or Massapequa's.
One more request: Please type, double- spaced. And
now -- let's go to work. Keep those items for the OB­SERVER
/ TRIBUNE Community Log coming.