Seaford
HERALD Citizen
A modern look at classic art
‘Virtual Vikings’ adapt to shutdown
County sales tax scenarios are grim
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VOL. 68 NO. 22
MAY 28 - JUNE 3, 2020
South Shore schools stress destressing By J.D. FREDA jfreda@liherald.com
Christina Daly/Herald
Honoring the fallen U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran Sgt. Paul Masi could not make his annual trip to Washington, D.C., for Memorial Day this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, he joined the Nassau County ceremony, leading Maj. Jack Chiara and County Executive Laura Curran to the wreath that was laid in honor of those who have died in service to the nation.
“You are not the only one. So many students are in your position. Reach out to us. We are professionals, and we are here to help,” Wantagh High School psychologist Agnes Ramos said when asked what she tells students who acknowledge that they need help coping with the anxieties of social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic. Though clearly important before the shutdown, school psychologists are critical in helping students deal with the isolation from friends and activities that the school closures have created.
“We’ve created a website — https://sites.google.com/wantaghschools.org/address-yourstress/home — for all students and their families as a general baseline support,” said Jeanne Love, the Wantagh district’s director of pupil personnel services. Love said her department initially reached out to students it worked with when distance learning was first established. “But we also have students who just need support,” she said, “just students having a hard time with anxiety, or possibly have family members that are sick.” “Every Friday, we review stuCONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Congressional candidate wants to upset ‘status quo’ By J.D. FREDA Jfreda@liherald.com
Patricia Maher acknowledges she isn’t a typical candidate for Congress, and she isn’t a career elected official. But as she says, this is anything but a typical year, and she believes her extensive background in law, community outreach and health care and her ability to connect with people will bring her a second Democratic nomination in six years — and a seat in Congress, representing New York’s 2nd District. Maher, 60, a native of East Meadow who lives in Westbury, earned a master’s degree in Eng-
lish and art history at Hofstra University and a law degree from Touro College’s Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in Central Islip. She is studying for a Master of Laws in health care and public policy at Hofstra. Her aim is to represent people with problems in the health care industry. This passion arose during Maher’s upbringing, as the daughter of a World War II Naval Nurse Cadet. Her mother attended a nurse training school in the early 1940s. “Initially, they said they would pay for her education if she served this country,” Maher said. “In those days, everybody wanted to serve.”
Her mother, Doris, she said, was chosen as an officer because of her high grades in training school. She was stationed at Sampson Naval Hospital, near upstate Seneca Lake, until she was assigned to serve at sea. Maher isn’t sure whether she ever touched foreign soil during the war. After their service, neither her mother nor thousands of other nurse cadets ever received the benefits that male GIs did. “They weren’t considered veterans,” Maher said. “They were there. They got diseases, got sick, were never given uniforms and never given benefits, even retroactively.”
Maher said she believed that benefits should be paid retroactively not only to the former nurse cadets who are still alive, but also to the families of those who died and those who are sick, to help them afford medical bills and burial plans. She has been working on this issue since 2011. Maher has long held the belief that she should work for
those who have less. While in law school, she worked in the Bankruptcy Clinic in Central Islip, “helping residents of Suffolk and Nassau counties and in the mortgage and foreclosure department,” she said. “Helping residents of Long Island save their homes.” She also completed an externship in the Long CONTINUED ON PAGE 3