__________________ Merrick _________________
HERALD Runners hit the streets
Students race handmade boats
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Vol. 29 No. 24
JUNE 11 - 17, 2026
$1.00
Teaching kids the truth in a TikTok world
long Island champions! Calhoun High School’s Ruth Small celebrated after the Colts captured their first L.I. softball title last Saturday with a 7-1 victory over East Isilip. Story, more photos, Page 6.
Freeport, Baldwin and other neighboring towns. “Our education committee is In a news climate dominated committed to ensuring that Long by social media, an overwhelm- Island public schools teach ing number of news sources and strong civics and critical thinkartificial intelligence, it can be ing skills,” Claudia Borecky, the challenging for anyone — espe- alliance’s president, shared cially today’s youth — to deci- about the group’s motivation to pher fact from fiction. host Schneider. “With so many The South Shore kids getting their Women’s Alliance, a news from 10-second nonpartisan organiTikTok clips and a zation that advoconstant stream of c at e s fo r i s s u e s infor mation and important to not misinfor mation, only women, but votthey’re more vulnerers in general, welable than ever to comed Howard Schconspiracy theories neider, founder of and early radicalizathe Center for News tion. Our goal is simLiteracy at Stony ple: to make sure Brook University, to our schools teach its May 28 meeting students how to anaat the Merrick Golf HowARD ScHNEIDER lyze the news they Course. consume.” Founder, Center for Schneider offered News Literacy Stony Schneider, a jourattendees tips and Brook University nalist who worked at tricks to better naviN e w s d ay f o r 3 5 gate today’s media years and a foundclimate. But perhaps more ing dean of Stony Brook’s jourimportantly, he talked about ini- nalism school, created a news littiatives he has spearheaded to eracy program when he started teach students how to be active working with the university in and thoughtful consumers of 2006. news. “I realized, back then, that Women’s alliance members even they were very confused hail from Merrick, Bellmore, and overwhelmed about what East Meadow, Wantagh, Seaford,
By JoRDAN VAlloNE
jvallone@liherald.com
I
f we don’t prepare the news consumers, the future citizens, journalism won’t survive.
Erik Lee/Herald
Grand Avenue students step back in time School unveils contents of a 50-year-old time capsule By HERNESTo GAlDAMEZ hgaldamez@liherald.com
For half a century, a unique piece of Grand Avenue Middle School history remained hidden behind a wall, waiting for the moment when a future generation would finally discover what students and staff from 1976 had left behind. That moment arrived on June 2, when school officials opened a time capsule created by the Class of 1976 inside the Bellmore school, fulfilling a promise made 50 years ago. Grand Avenue is part of the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District. The capsule, sealed during the nation’s bicen-
tennial year, was covered by a plaque bearing a message from the students of that era: “Presented by the Class of ’76 to be opened June 2026 when our nation celebrates its 250th anniversary.” Students and staff throughout the building watched the unveiling via livestream during an extended advisory period. In the days leading up to the event, advisory classes participated in activities designed to build excitement while helping students understand what life was like when the capsule was created. According to Social Studies Chairperson Ann Donaldson, students first learned about the purContinued on page 2
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