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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, APRUL 21, 2019
The boy’s mom said the incident
amounted to a breakdown
in her trust in the
city’s schools and its employees
who are charged with
keeping kids safe.
“They failed my son, and
they failed me, because I
dropped my son off in their
hands to make sure he’s safe,”
said Coney Island resident
Jennifer Smith. “For them
to leave my son behind, it has
changed my whole feelings
towards how the school
system is run.”
Smith said the incident occurred
April 4 when her son,
Blake Everett — who she said
has a leg length discrepancy
that impairs his mobility and
requires him to be accompanied
by an aide at all times —
joined his classmates from PS
329 on a fi eld trip to the Cobble
Hill Theater.
But Everett’s aide rode
back to the learning house
on a separate bus, according
to Smith, who added
that her son fell asleep and
slipped under a bus seat by
the time the group returned
to the school at some point
between 1:30 p.m. and 1:45
p.m. When Everett woke up
a few minutes later, the bus
was parked and empty except
for the driver, according
to Smith, who said that her
scared student didn’t know
where he was. The bus driver
then contacted the school
at around 2:10 p.m., and a
teacher trekked to the bus
and rode back to the school
with the boy, according to
Smith.
The worried mother fi -
nally spoke to the youngster
by phone at around 2:30 p.m.,
when she called the school
to inquire about where he
was after a friend with a contact
in the school had texted
Smith to tell her that her son
was missing, she said, adding
that offi cials never contacted
her to tell her what had happened.
The friend who contacted
Smith, Toya Boyd, confi rmed
details of Smith’s account of
the incident.
Department of Education
spokeswoman Miranda
Barbot confi rmed in a statement
that honchos were investigating
the incident,
and that they would discipline
school offi cials if
necessary.
“Safety always comes
fi rst, and this serious allegation
was reported and is under
investigation,” Barbot said.
“We will take any necessary
follow-up action.”
Smith claimed a rep from
the superintendent’s offi ce of
the local District 21 told her
that offi cials were specifi -
cally investigating a teacher
at the school and one of its
two assistant principals —
both of whom were allegedly
on the fi eld trip — but Barbot
said she could not reveal who
specifi cally was under investigation.
Barbot did not reply to
multiple inquiries seeking
more information on the department’s
protocol for handling
incidents of missing
students.
Smith said she transferred
Everett and his twin
brother, Bryce, out of the
school and into nearby PS 188
following the incident. But
she said that she won’t feel at
peace until there’s a change
of leadership at PS 329, and
blasted the school’s honchos
for failing to make sure Everett’s
aide was by his side at all
times on the trip and failing
to tell her what had happened
when they discovered he was
missing.
“I don’t think they should
be allowed to be watching
over children — it seemed
like they didn’t take it seriously,”
Smith said. “It’s like it
was being swept underneath
the rug, like they didn’t want
me to know.”
CHILD
Continued from page 1
ALL BY HIMSELF: City offi cials
are investigating an allegation
that honchos at PS 329 in Coney
Island left eight-year-old
disabled student Blake Everett,
pictured, alone on a school bus
last week after he fell asleep
and failed to inform his mother
about what happened.
Jennifer Smith
The revamp comes at
a $6.5 million price tag
for the 450-foot pathway
— or roughly $1,200 per
inch — which is $2.5 million
more expensive than
retrofi tting the current
structure.
But maintaining the
existing bridge would
cost more in the long run
than the additional upfront
costs, according to
Landau.
“After a certain number
of years, the $2.5
million that we saved in
retrofi tting versus replacing,
we would spend that
and more in ongoing annual
maintenance of the
bridge,” he said.
The cash to rebuild the
project will come from
funds generated by development
projects and concession
sales in the green
space, according to Landau.
The ever-evolving reconstruction
project of
the Brooklyn-Queens
Expressway, which
stretches 1.5 miles between
Atlantic Avenue
and Sands Street, and
cuts beneath the stretch of
Columbia Heights where
locals currently enter
Middagh Street’s Squibb
Park, will not affect the
bridge’s construction but
might have an impact on
the Heights green space
depending on which plan
the city chooses for the
crumbling roadway, Landau
said.
“I think it’s fair to
say that all of the plans
at some level have an impact
to the park — not
necessarily to this bridge
but to the park — and it’s
hard for us to fully judge
what those impacts are
because some of those
plans haven’t been fully
vetted or fully engineered
yet,” he said.
The future construction
of a long-awaited pool
in that park will also not
interfere with the bridge
project but the walkway
will have to be accessible
without having to go
through the bath, as per
the city’s regulations on
entrances and exits to
swimming spots, Landau
said.
SQUIBB
Continued from page 10