Serving Williston Park, East Williston, Mineola, Albertson and Searingtown
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Friday, July 16, 2021
Vol. 70, No. 29
SCHOOLS & EDUCATION
TOWN APPLICATIONS DELAYED
50% SUCCEED CHALLENGING ASSESSMENTS
PAGE 21-28
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Path forward unclear after speech furor Members of EWSD community search for ways to reduce tensions BY S A M U E L E PETRUCCELLI Nearly five weeks after a Wheatley School student’s graduation address set off a furor inside and outside East Williston, community leaders and parents have differing views about how to move forward. Tensions ran high after the Old Westbury high school’s commencement ceremony when the speaker, Huda Ayaz, was confronted by an adult who shouted, “Go back to Pakistan,” according to Ahmed M. Mohamed, legal director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Aggravation also spilled over at a school board meeting last Tuesday, during which officials would neither condemn nor condone the contents of the speech. Michael Stanger, rabbi of the Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, was on vacation during the height of reactions to the speech. He heard from congregants be-
fore and after his return home who were troubled by the address in which Ayaz referred to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as an ethnic cleansing. “You can’t un-ring a bell, unfortunately,” Stanger said. “What she said, she said. What some of the people said in response, appropriate or not, was said,” he added, condemning the adult who shouted the xenophobic remark at Ayaz. Though it’s clear the temperature of residents runs high, there is no easy way to cool it down. But Stanger argued that discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might not be the best place to begin the process of restoring community ties. “You’re going to have to start from a different place,” Stanger said. “I think you’re going to have to start from a safer place and maybe that means starting from an understanding of religion and culture.” Continued on Page 34
PHOTO COURTESY OF KAREN RUBIN/NEWS-PHOTOS-FEATURES.COM
Northwell Health nurse and Port Washington resident Sandra Lindsay was the grand marshal of a ticker-tape parade honoring New York’s healthcare workers on Wednesday. See story on page 3.
Walsh, Pusateri vie to replace Ferrara on board BY R OB E RT PELAEZ
Town of North Hempstead’s board in November. Dennis Walsh, the Republican A Village of Mineola trustee nominee, is a retired New York and a special education activist Police Department officer and with a desire to serve her commu- a graduate of St. Aidan School nity are running for a seat on the and Mineola High School who
has served as a Mineola trustee since 2013. Christine Pusateri, the Democratic candidate, has been a speech pathologist for three decades throughout the New Hyde Park and Williston communities. Continued on Page 35
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