The TIMES of Smithtown
Specializ
E Y E C ARE F
ing in the
O R THE EN
la Serving Smithtown • St. JameS • neSconSet • commack • hauppauge • kingS park Salonga Blad• eFort less Lasetest r Vision November 12, 2015
S
TIRE FAMIL Y
top in w Corr ith Special $ ection this ad 8 f 0 o 0 ra Off* Not to be com bine
‘Sexting’ scandal
Discount is off
d with any ot her full fee for bo discount. th eyes.
$1.00
FREE GIF T
(while su
pplies las VINCENT t) P. BASILIC E , M.D., E . SE TAU P .C. K E T • (63 WAD IN G 1) 751–2 020 R IV E R www.TO • (631) 209– 4200 C
eye.com
Smithtown students face arrests, suspensions
©1450 49
Volume 28, No. 37
CO M PL E T E
By phil corSo
‘Through Our Eyes’ opens at the LIM also: ‘Bridge of Spies’ review, Mr. Fezziwig at Theatre Three, modern sculpture book review
Page B1
In honor of our heroes
Smithtown streets given new names in memory of two noble firefighters
Page a3
What started as an isolated “sexting” incident has spread across two school districts in greater Smithtown and led to two arrests and more than 20 suspensions, school officials said Tuesday. It all started in late October, when two 14-year-old boys from an unspecified high school in Smithtown used a cell phone to record a sexual encounter with a female acquaintance off school grounds, the Suffolk County Police Department said in a statement. That explicit content was later distributed electronically to others in an act referred to as sexting to students at Kings Park High School, which led to widespread suspensions there, Kings Park Superintendent Timothy Eagen said in a statement. Police did not specify the age of the female or where she attends school, or whether
Photo by elana glowatz
roughly 20 kings park students face suspensions after a ‘sexting’ incident involving two Smithtown students.
the sexual act was consensual or forced. Both boys were arrested and charged with two felonies — disseminating indecent material to minors and promoting a sexual performance by a child — and a sexual abuse misdemeanor and were scheduled to appear in family court on a later date, police said. Cops did not release the
names of the students because they are minors. In a statement, Smithtown Schools Superintendent James Grossane confirmed the two boys were high school students within the district but did not specify whether they attended Smithtown High School East or Smithtown High School West. He said district disciplinary
action would be determined pending the outcome of an investigation, and the district was working with the SCPD to find a resolution. “We are greatly disturbed by these allegations and we express our heartfelt concern to the alleged victim and their family,” Grossane said in a statement, SeXTINg continued on page a7
Rotary’s work adds decades to girl’s life By elana glowatZ
A 4-year-old girl from Kosovo is recovering after a lifesaving heart operation on Long Island, thanks to the work of local volunteers. It took a village to support Uerda Zena. Rotary groups throughout Suffolk lent a hand to the girl and her mother, Barbara, through the Gift of Life program, which works to provide such stateside heart procedures to children from around the globe. Uerda’s Nov. 4 surgery to repair a hole in her heart the size of a nickel was a milestone effort that celebrated the Rotary program’s 40th anniversary. The atrial septal defect
closure performed on Uerda at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn will add 60 or more years to the little girl’s life, Port Jefferson Rotary member Debbie Engelhardt explained, but the surgery was not available in her home nation. Engelhardt, who is also the director of the Comsewogue Public Library, said more than 19,000 children from dozens of countries have received lifesaving surgeries since the Gift of Life program was born in Suffolk County four decades ago and expanded through Rotary International. Rotary groups in the county are still going strong with Gift of Life, which is doubling up its HeaRT continued on page a8
uerda Zena colors before her procedure.
Photo from Debbie engelhardt