School Technical Ideas

BOYNTON BEACH — Whoever plans to make something of the historic 1927 Boynton Beach High School building should be prepared to lease or even buy it, says a staff report written for Monday’s city commission meeting.

The report concurs with one done in May by consultants.

They called renovating and using the building a “very viable” prospect, but said it would cost between $4.6 million and $5.4 million.

Commissioners had, at the time, told staff to start working up requests for proposals.

The consultant has recommended using the building as an education or banquet hall; a multi-tenant complex for office space, retail, food and services such as fitness centers; or an art and culture center with studios and meeting spots.

Consultants had recommended the city start planning to shore up the building; staffers priced design and prep work for that at about $250,000.

The staff also recommended the city be prepared to waive permits and fees up to $100,000 as an incentive to investors.

And the report suggested the city identify public money sources in its call for proposals.

Consultants said that, if green-lighted in time, the new center could open as early as December 2012.

Fruitport High School named its Students of the Month for February.

Bethany Marit Bo is the daughter of Glenn and Mary Bo. Bethany is a senior at Fruitport High School and serves as the Executive Council President for Student Council.

She is a member of National Honor Society, Business Professionals of America, Spanish Club, and is active in her church youth group. Bo plans on attending Lee University to pursue a degree in elementary education and minor in intercultural studies.

Michael Anthony Reyes is the son of Mike and Carla Reyes. He is a junior at Fruitport High School and is involved in football, basketball, and baseball.

Reyes plans on attending Grand Valley State University to pursue a degree in sports medicine.

A high school gang was an “organization” within the meaning of New York state’s anti-hazing law, and a prospective member of the gang may not consent to being hazed, a state appellate court has ruled.

A four-judge panel of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, the state’s mid-level appeals court, upheld a juvenile delinquency finding for a student who participated in the hazing of a young man who sought to join the “Lost Boys,” a gang at their high school in the New York City borough of Queens.

According to court papers, to join the gang, the unidentified teenager had to submit to a “jumping in,” an activity in which gang members surrounded him and repeatedly struck him with closed fists, or kicked him in the head and ribs when he fell. The juvenile charged in this case, identified as Khalil H., was the one who recruited the victim and videotaped his beating.

A Queens County family court ruled that Khalil H. committed acts that would constitute the crimes of conspiracy and attempted hazing, and he was placed in state custody for one year. An appeal on behalf of the juvenile argued that the Lost Boys was not an organization subject to New York state’s anti-hazing law.

In its Nov. 9 decision in the Matter of Khalil H., the state appellate court disagreed, saying that the Lost Boys was organized for mutual protection.

“Members met in the park to carry out the [victim's] planned initiation ceremony, held meetings, and wore flags with black and white stars, as well as stringed black and white beads, to signify their membership in the Lost Boys,” the court said. “Thus, we find that the Lost Boys gang is the type of ‘organization’ the Legislature contemplated when it enacted [the anti-hazing statutes.]”

The court also rejected Khalil H.’s argument that the victim willingly subjected himself to the initiation ritual and thus no crime was committed.

“Often, those who are victims of hazing are, to some degree, willing to accept humiliation and physical abuse from others in order to gain social acceptance,” the court said, citing court rulings in other states against allowing victim consent to be a defense to hazing. “Students willingly subject themselves to these acts to be accepted. Many times, they have no idea of how bad the hazing will be until they are put in the situation. By then, it is too late and they accept the consequences rather than lose face by backing out.”

The decision also includes an interesting history of New York state’s anti-hazing laws and a description of an 1894 hazing incident at Cornell University that resulted in student injuries and the death of a cook.

RIVIERA BEACH — Drivers still wait in lines of traffic and obey police to reach the new Suncoast High School in the mornings.

But some residents say the Suncoast traffic is flowing better than it was during the first few hectic days of the school year. And the school district says the traffic jam between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. will be eased in mid-October, when a wider section of West 13th Street is scheduled to open.

Still, some residents remain frustrated by the congested mass of cars winding through their residential streets.

“It’s crazy,” said Erica Gonder, a parent who lives on 13th Street near the Suncoast entrance. “It’s not that we don’t want the school there. They should take a better route.”

Terrence Houvouras, a father of three who lives on 13th Street, worries about cars speeding by his house while his sons play basketball in the driveway.

Houvouras and other residents want speed bumps to be restored when the wider stretch of 13th Street near the school entrance is completed. The school district is not planning speed bumps, nothing that they pose problems for school buses.

“Their only concern is making everyone at Suncoast comfortable,” said Annette Simpson, a 13th Street resident who attended an Aug. 24 meeting with district officials to discuss traffic around the new school. Simpson says speed bumps are needed – especially now that the road in front of her house will be wider and filled with young drivers headed for Suncoast.

Riviera Beach officials are irked, too.

The city withheld water and sewer permits for the new high school last year because the district had failed to make road improvements to handle Suncoast traffic. The utility permits were granted in January after the city and district approved an agreement that called for several improvements: two stoplights, turn lanes on Congress Avenue and a widening of the stretch of 13th Street between Congress Avenue and Jake Lane.

The road work was supposed to have been completed Aug. 1. The city and the school district are working to extend the deadline to Jan. 7.

City officials also are negotiating with the district to pay for the hours that six Riviera Beach police officers spend directing traffic to and from Suncoast.

The acclaimed high school sits on a 70-acre campus that includes John F. Kennedy Middle School and Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary. The high school serves 1,394 students.

To reduce the number of students walking through construction and traffic to reach the three schools, the district recently added bus routes to pick up students at the Spinnaker Landing and Marsh Harbour developments west of Congress Avenue.

But on a recent morning, a student dressed in khaki trousers and a white shirt walked, apparently late for school, around backhoes and bulldozers working on 13th Street near the Suncoast entrance.