RyeCity REVIEW THE
July 17, 2020 | Vol. 8, Number 30 | www.ryecityreview.com
Schools to reopen if less than 5% infection rate By CHRISTIAN FALCONE Editor-in-Chief
GROUNDED On July 13, Gov. Cuomo announced that anyone traveling to New York must now fill out a traveler form providing their contact information and whereabouts when performing a required 14-day quarantine. For story, see page 3.
Former IHM student speaks out on sexual abuse case By MIKE SMITH Sports Editor David Fox was just eight years old when he rushed home from school, grabbed a razor blade and tried to carve up his own face. Unsure of how to put an end to the sexual abuse he experienced at the hands of his elementary school gym teacher, Fox believed that self-mutilation was the only way to discourage his predator. “Maybe he thought I was pretty,” Fox told The Review this week in an exclusive interview. “So, I guess I tried to ugly myself
up.” Now 66, Fox lives in hospice care in California and admits that although those physical scars may have healed, the emotional wounds remain raw. “I know now that everything in my life, it stems from a lack of self-esteem, a lack of self-confi-
“For every kid that filed lawsuits, there are probably 10 or 20 that didn’t,” he said. “It wasn’t just 21 kids, it was hundreds of kids.” – David Fox
dence,” he said. “Ever since I was
11 years old, I just felt like a piece of garbage.” After developing a drinking problem by the age of 13—Fox admits to consuming a pint of whiskey a day—he lists three failed marriages, the inability to maintain sexual intimacy in relationships, and several lost professional opportunities as casualties of the mental anguish that plague him as a result of those childhood assaults, even if he didn’t always recognize the abuse as the cause of his fragile emotional state. “I realized that I pushed people away as a result of the abuse, and
I’m sad that I never had a good marriage, that I never had a relationship last more than a few months,” he said. Fox believes that he took a significant step last November toward reclaiming some power over his childhood experiences when he filed a lawsuit under the Child Victims Act statute against his ex-gym teacher Edwin Gaynor, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Scarsdale and the Archdiocese of New York, alleging that Gaynor’s repeated ABUSE continued on page 4
Schools throughout New York state will be able to reopen classrooms come September if certain regional thresholds are met, but whether it’s enough to quell concerns of parents is another issue. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, announced on July 13 that any school in a region in Phase Four of the state’s economic reopening plan would be allowed to reopen for in-person instruction if daily COVID-19 infection rates remain under 5% over a 14-day average. Currently, all 10 regions in the state are in the final Phase Four of re-opening; New York City entered that final phase this week. “That means the virus is under control,” Cuomo said. “That means it’s safer to reopen.” The decision whether to reopen individual schools will be made during the first week in August. Westchester County, which is part of the Mid-Hudson Region, had an infection rate of 1.0% as of Monday. If a region meets that state formula, then school districts would have to comply with reopening guidelines put in place by the state Education Department, the Reimagine Education Advisory Council and the state Department of Health. That guidance consists of various things like requiring masks for students, faculty and staff while in school except for lunch periods, instruction and for during short breaks when social distancing must be maintained. At least six-feet of distancing will be required for all students and faculty while on school grounds and in school facilities. To reduce social density, the guidance recommends school districts repurpose additional indoor space and consider the usage of outdoor space where applicable.
Students will also be encouraged to be grouped into cohorts, or small reasonably sized group limits that would remain for the duration of the public health crisis while enacting measures to ensure cohorts are not intermingling. These guidelines were made available to the public on July 13. Each local school district in the state is now required to develop its own re-opening plan, to be reviewed and approved by the state by July 30. Schools, however, would immediately close if, after Aug. 1, any region surpasses a 9% daily infection rate over a seven-day average. “If the infection rate goes over 9 percent that means the virus is moving rapidly and it is not intelligent to open,” Cuomo said. “It’s the way we’ve done the economic reopening. It’s purely on the numbers, it’s on the science.” Statewide New York has reduced its overall infection rate to 1.2%. Hospitalizations were down to 716 with 158 people in ICU on Monday. Those numbers reflect lows since mid-March when the COVID-19 outbreak was in its infancy in parts of the state. But New York has also suffered more than 25,000 fatalities from the coronavirus, the highest death toll in the U.S. “We’re not going to use our children as guinea pigs,” Cuomo said. “Common sense and intelligence can still determine what we do. We have more data than any state.” But school re-openings have become an increasingly polarizing topic as the nation inches closer to September. In California, the Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento school districts announced last week that the school year would SCHOOLS continued on 14