12 Rozic bill aims for more stringent background checks
QUEENS WEEKLY, FEB. 3, 2019
Legislation would require increased fingerprinting for public & private school employees
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
State Assemblywoman
Nily Rozic introduced legislation
Monday requiring
prospective employees at
all schools across New York
state to undergo fingerprinting
and comprehensive,
state-conducted background
checks.
The legislation aims
to protect students from
abuse, while keeping predators
out of all schools,
both public and private.
Long Island state Sen. Todd
Kaminsky introduced an
identical version of the bill
in the state Senate.
“With students spending
a majority of their day
in school, it is critical that
their school environment
be safe and supportive,”
said Rozic.
“Implementing a fingerprinting
procedure that is
already standard practice
at public schools would provide
families with peace
of mind, knowing that all
children are safe, no matter
what school they attend,”
she added.
Under current law, public
schools in New York state
are mandated by Education
Law § 305(30) to fingerprint
prospective employees who
have contact with students
and submit them for comprehensive
background
checks by the state Department
of Criminal Justice
Services and FBI.
However, such measures
are optional for employees
of New York’s nonpublic
schools.
Rozic and Kaminsky’s
legislation would amend
state law to require all elementary,
middle and high
schools — both public and
non-public — across the
state of New York to require
the fingerprinting
of all employees for the
purposes of a governmentconducted
criminal background
check.
Elliot Pasik, an attorney
in private practice, is the
co-founder and president of
the Jewish Board of Advocates
for Children and commended
the lawmakers for
listening and working toward
passing the legislation
to protect children in
schools across the state.
“The pleas of the child
abuse victims, their families,
and advocates, have
not been in vain. Every
voice has mattered. Every
single activist has made
a difference. Their perseverance,
through trying
times, has brought us here
today,” said Pasik. “The
state Legislature has listened.
More than 400,000
non-public school children
will be safer when the bill
passes. If you want to work
in a New York school, public
or non-public, you must
be fingerprinted, and
screened for any serious
criminal history.”
“I hope and pray that
this bill gives some comfort
to those families who
have lost loved ones to the
evil scourge of child sex
abuse. The bill sponsors,
State Senator Todd Kaminsky,
and Assembly Member
Nily Rozic, have shown decisive
leadership,” Pasik
added. “The Wall Street
Journal, and their Education
Reporter Leslie Brody,
shined the brightest light
possible on this issue.
My colleagues and I are
proud to have participated
in this process. This is,
genuinely, a people’s bill,
born out of suffering, that
seeks a brighter day for
all school children.”
Photo via Getty Images
Astoria play ‘Queen’ a rhapsody on ongoing effort to save bees
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
On Jan. 31, the Astoria
Performing Arts Center
will debut a new play
about two scientists, the
bees they need to save and
the integrity they might
lose while doing so.
“Queen,” which will be
performed 12 times from
Jan. 31 to Feb. 16, is a creation
of Madhuri Shekar,
one of the writers of HBO’s
“The Nevers,”a sci-fi series
in the same league as
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,”
“Angel” and “Firefly.”
“Queen” tells the story
of two female Ph.D candidates,
Sanam and Ariel,
who have spent the past
seven years researching
vanishing bee populations
across the globe. Just as
they are about to publish
a career-defining paper,
Sanam stumbles upon an
error which could cause
catastrophic damage to
their reputations, careers,
and friendship.
Sanam and Ariel must
then choose between publishing
their findings and
saving the bees or telling
the truth and facing
the consequences.
When writing the
play, Shekar said that she
wanted audiences to leave
the theater worried about
climate change, which is
threatening the world’s
bee population. She wanted
to do so with a sense of
relief, as the play centers
around two very real female
characters—something
hard to find on the
screen or stage.
“They are funny and
they’re human and they’re
grown up and they are passionate,”
Shekar said about
Sanam and Ariel. “They
are like my friends.”
As someone whose
strengths have always lied
in more creative endeavors,
Shekar found the scientific
world a bit foreign.
But that changed after
Shekar shared an apartment
with a close friend
and organic chemist who
became the inspiration
for “Queen’s” two Ph.D
yearning leads.
She learned that scientists
who, like artists,
are passionate and
under appreciated.
“The ways in which
their work is ignored is
painful to them,” said
Shekar, about her now
larger group of science
friends. “Queen” provides
a platform for the silenced
female scientist working
to improve the world, by
making people “spend
some time with the scientists
who are working
their butts off.”
Hopefully so that others,
like her, will learn
to fully appreciate the
complexities, anxieties,
struggles, merit of all that
they do.
Tickets are $25 for
adults and $20 for students
and senior citizens,
and are now available online
at www.apacny.org.
Tickets may also be purchased
at the theater, beginning
one hour prior to
each performance.
Reach reporter Alejandra
O’Connell-Domenech
by e-mail at adomenech@
qns.com or by phone at (718)
224-5863 ext. 226.
Courtesy of the Astoria Performing Arts Center
/www.apacny.org
/www.apacny.org
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