County legislators have proposed laws to notify school districts and other groups about arrests for heroin possession and sales.

09:43 on Dec. 18. , The Nassau Legislature will vote on its measure Dec. 15; the Suffolk Legislature 0 Comments

Prompted by a surge in heroin use on Long Island, county legislators have proposed laws to notify school districts and other groups about arrests for heroin possession and sales.The Nassau-Suffolk County School Boards Association opposed the initial drafts of the legislation, arguing that they overstepped the counties’ authority to impose legislation on school districts and put too much burden and liability on the schools.The Suffolk bill has been revised as a result and would now result in monthly notification on a Web site while also mapping where heroin arrests take place. But in Nassau, Legislator David L. Mejias of Farmingdale is pushing ahead with his bill, which would immediately notify school districts and selected other groups of heroin-related arrests.The bills — to be called the Natalie Ciappa Law in Nassau and Natalie’s Law in Suffolk — were named after an 18-year-old Massapequa resident who died of a heroin overdose in June at a party in Seaford. The Nassau Legislature will vote on its measure Dec. 15; the Suffolk Legislature, on Dec. 18.
Nassau’s bill would require law enforcement officials to notify the school district, synagogues, churches, PTAs, civic and community organizations in an area where any arrest for possession or sale of heroin takes place. If a student is arrested for possession or sale in a different town from his or her own, both the home school district and the district where the arrest is made would be notified.
Suffolk County introduced a similar measure, sponsored by Legislator Wayne R. Horsley of Babylon.After the bills were introduced, the school boards association voiced concerns and eventually met with Suffolk legislators. Among other things, the association asked that notification be made quarterly by the counties’ police commissioners.Lorraine Deller, the executive director of the association, said, “We are concerned that the proposals immunized from liability any official, employee or agency of the county and their police departments, but made no effort to provide immunization of liability for schools.”She also pushed for notification beyond only school districts, as the bills initially required. Both were amended to do that.
The Suffolk legislation was also amended to make notification monthly and on a county Web site. But Mr. Mejias said he had the support of educational groups that include superintendents and PTAs and that while he had altered the bill to broaden those who would receive the information, he would not amend it further.
Mr. Mejias said he was “shocked and dismayed” that the school boards association “would rather not know vital information that could save children’s lives.”“Parents expect their kids to experiment with alcohol, but never with heroin,” he said. “We want schools and parents to know if there is someone in the community who is involved or has been arrested so they can be on the lookout.”
Lawrence W. Mulvey, the Nassau police commissioner, said he supports the legislation. “In my experience, the schools have been in denial over how serious the heroin problem is,” he said. “Parents are in the dark, and it’s going on right before their eyes.”November this year, there were 198 arrests for heroin sale or possession in Nassau, up from 152 in all of 2007, the county police said. In Suffolk, there were 766 heroin-related arrests through November this year, up from 597 in all of 2007, the police said. Doreen and Victor Ciappa, Natalie’s parents, have publicly supported the legislation, which they say could help prevent tragedies similar to their daughter’s.“Natalie was everybody’s dream child,” Mrs. Ciappa said. “She was in the honor society, a cheerleader and sang the national anthem at school events. We knew that she went to parties, and I was concerned that she was experimenting with pills and cocaine, but I never once considered heroin. If I had known, I believe that things would have been different. Heroin took away her life.”