_______ Lynbrook/east rockaway ______
HERALD Also serving Bay Park
The ‘Knight’mare of Columbus Page 3 Vol. 29 No. 45
Time to fall back
Rocks fall short in season closer
Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday
Remember to set your clocks back, and change your smoke and CO detector batteries
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NoVEMBER 3 - 9, 2022
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A huge camera for a good cause ERHS students win ‘Canstruction’ competition with innovative idea By BEN FIEBERT bfiebert@liherald.com
Molloy College is now Molloy University. 23(1 +286(
Courtesy East Rockaway School District
6XQGD\ 1RY EAST RoCKAwAy EAST RoCKAw CKAwA wAAyy H HIgH IgH School students with their Canstruction creation, a Polaroid camera constructed of 1,678 cans of 30food.
Kathy Payne, a for mer teacher from East Rockaway High School, star ted the Canstruction team in 2018 and the team has won every competition since then. The Canstruction Long Island student competition challenges participating teams to design and build a sculpture only using cans. Based on this year’s theme, “Picture a World Without Hunger,” the East Rockaway team used 1,678 cans to build a Polaroid camera.
This event also gives back to those in need as the cost of admission to view the Canstruction exhibit is one can of food, which is then donated to organizations that help feed the hungry on Long Island. The sculptures are on display until Nov. 6 at the RXR Plaza in Uniondale. The builds were planned out weeks in advance at the East Rockaway High School. “The students do practice builds at the school so all the cans come in, they do their practice builds so they’re not Continued on page 9
Schools mum on $30M judgment against former teacher Byy DANIE DANIEll oFFNER doffner@liherald.com
A court awarded a former Hewitt Elementary School student $30 million last month over sexual abuse claims dating back to 1979. The judgment went against David Savage, a former fifthgrade teacher at the school, who had been accused of molesting Michael Malvin when Malvin was 10. Now in his 50s, Malvin filed a suit under the state’s Child Victims Act, which allowed anyone with abuse claims to have one last chance to sue, no matter how long ago the alleged activity took place.
Malvin named not only Savage in his 2019 filing with the Nassau County Supreme Court, but also the Lynbrook and Rockville Centre school districts, claiming they were negligent in protecting students like Malvin from abuse. But the school districts didn’t make it to the end of the case. The Lynbrook Union Free School District was dropped from the suit in April, while the Rockville Centre Union Free School District was removed in August. Both districts were removed “with prejudice,” according to court documents, meaning Malvin would not be able to re-file
against them. While documents state the districts were removed “without costs to any party,” it’s not clear if the districts settled with Malvin, or simply were removed. “We cannot comment on the outcome of the allegations that were made against the school district,” said Fredrick Aranki of Block O’Toole & Murphy, one of the lawyers who represented Malvin in his suit. Michael Cibella, who represented Savage, did not return calls seeking comment. Also mum about any potential settlement are the school districts themselves. A number of school board members and
administrators contacted by the Herald declined to comment. But that’s not enough for Jeff Greenfield, a Rockville Centre resident and Nassau County Planning Commission member, who has already contacted the school districts seeking answers. “It’s my experience, when there is a settlement, one that uses taxpayer money, that
amount of money has to be disclosed to the public,” Greenfield said. “We have a right to know how the school board spends taxpayer money. They have no right to sign away the rights of the taxpayer.” Greenfield believes school board members may be under non-disclosure agreements in Continued on page 19