By +Scott Leffler 
scott.leffler@eastniagarapost.com

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A man in  a black cargo van attempted to lure a North Park Junior High School student into that van, according to an email sent from Lockport City School District Superintendent Michelle Bradley to district administrators.

The email, forwarded to East Niagara Post, described the man as "a white male in his early 50s," with "gray and black hair along with a beard." It said the he was driving an "older model black cargo van (unknown make and model)" when he "attempted to lure the student into the vehicle." It said the man "held up a clear plastic bag."

LPD took a report on the matter and will be patrolling the area around North Park and Anna Merritt throughout the day. Anyone with any information on the van or driver is asked to call LPD at 433-7700.

Bradley's email praised the student's handing of the incident. "The student handled the situation very well and provided very good details.  He has been told to take pictures and/or call 911 if this happens again."

She also suggested that those receiving the email "review with students what to do if approached by a stranger without causing panic."

A call to Bradley was not immediately returned.

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A Ridge Road Express bus driver told Niagara County Sheriff's deputies that a student or students from North Park Intermediate School stole $45 and 10 Rubles from her purse.

The woman said the incident happened between 2:46 and 3:16 p.m., while she was driving the students home from school. She said her purse was next to her on the right hand side on the floor between her seat and the front door. She said following the completion of the route, she noticed that the purse had been moved and then found that the money was missing.

The complainant told patrol on Nov. 20 that she had three students in mind that may have stolen the money. She also said told patrol that there are video cameras on the bus.

On Nov. 25, she called NCSO again and said that the video does not show the students stealing the money and that none of the three kids admitted to the theft when confronted.

NCSO closed the case without charges.

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The Lockport City School District is holding a literacy event from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at North Park Junior High School, 160 Passaic Ave.

The event will include:

• Scholastic Book Fair
• Basket raffle
• Free books to take home
• Special guest read alouds
• Literacy activities created by Niagara University graduate students
• Spotlight on local authors
• Informational displays by The Lockport Library (book fine forgiveness & free library cards), The Literacy Zone, Adult Literacy Services, Lockport YMCA, PAWS, and the Lockport City School District
• Refreshments

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From left to right, Kate Matthies and Erin Fisher, in front, as Liam Elwood, Lexi Madden and Austin Dick "drum" up support for a North Park Band Boosters spaghetti dinner Friday. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

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The North Park Band Boosters will hold a spaghetti dinner from 5-8 p.m. Friday at the school, 160 Passaic Ave.

The dinner includes salad, bread, spaghetti with homemade sauce and meatballs. There will be a large basket raffle and a bake sale as well. Tickets can be purchased at the door the night of the event and take out is available.

The fundraiser will enable the North Park Symphonic Band Members to travel to Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio to compete in the Music in the Parks Festival as well as the North Park Concert Band Members to attend "Titanic" in Toronto.

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LPD Officers Laura Schuler and Heather Rohde helped North Park students make and stuff stockings for troops abroad on Friday. (PHOTOS BY HEATHER N. GRIMMER / ENP PHOTOGRAPHER)

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Stockings stuffed and ready to be shipped overseas.

Seventh-graders in North Park's community service project with the Lockport Police Department's GREAT program recently helped to make and stuff stockings for American troops abroad.

The students walked from school to the Dale Association to take part in the program, in which they also helped the Dale's Memory Minders Club paint gourds.

There's more photos of Friday's stocking stuffing and gourd painting at the Dale Association here.

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Lockport police are still looking for the person who filmed an assault of a North Park student by two other girls Sept. 5.

"We have to try to find this guy," Police Chief Larry Eggert said.

The two aggressors in the assault have been found and charged but no one has offered up the name of the cameraman, Eggert said.

Comments on ENP's Facebook page have indicated that his identity is widely known, but no one has come forward to police with his name.

Eggert said he's unsure why no one has come forward with information and added that the person behind the camera may or may not face charges once his identity is determined.

"Merely standing there and filming ... doesn't make you an accomplice," the chief said. "It doesn't make you a criminal."

RELATED:

• One charged from juvenile beating - second to be charged
• Second assault suspect found, charged

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The second suspect in a brutal beating that happened Friday in Lockport was found by police late this morning and charged with third-degree assault.

The assault, which occurred Friday evening on Devereaux Court, was captured on video and caused an uproar in the Lockport community over the weekend and continuing to today.

Police charged one juvenile female yesterday and charged the second today when she was found. Police wouldn't say where the second girl was found but did confirm that she was not in Lockport.

Police are still searching for whoever was holding the video camera to record the assault.

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A video showing a young girl being assaulted by two other girls in Lockport has many in the community demanding justice -- and answers.

The video, shot Friday on Devereaux Court near Cave Street, shows a young white girl standing still while a male counts to 10 - and then to five, after which the girl is grabbed by the hair, slapped and punched by a black girl who appears to be approximately the same size and age. After a short while, another black girl - of a much larger stature - joins in assaulting the victim. The video ends as the victim runs towards Cave Street.

Lockport Police Department Captain Brian Wentland said this afternoon that the first assailant has been charged with third-degree assault and the second assailant will be charged when police catch up with her.

The girls are both juveniles so police have not released their names. Although several posts online have identified the girls, East Niagara Post does not name juveniles in crimes.

The video appears below. It is graphic in nature and some may find it disturbing.


North Park Junior High School Principal Dr. Ryan Schoenfeld said the video is disheartening for a number of reasons, least among them being that the school just had four sessions on students' rights to know, including one on bullying, on Friday - the day of the attack. The three girls are North Park students.

Schoenfeld said the school learned of the video and is dealing with it, but noted that it is a police matter.

Schoenfeld said the school has been very proactive in dealing with bullying. Last year, the school won praise for a much more positive video; one in which the students proudly hold signs showing how they're identified by themselves or others - to the tune of Miranda Lambert's "All Kinds of Kinds." The video went viral when Lambert, herself, tweeted about it.

The school also works with the Lockport Police Department's G.R.E.A.T. program. And there are two hall monitors in the school to serve as liaisons between students and administration. They also act as peer counselors.

"You can be doing all of this stuff and bad things still happen," Schoenfeld said.

LPD Community Policing Aide Mark Sanders said the department was made aware of the video over the weekend and that the matter remains under investigation. The department has been in contact with the victim as well as the assailants.

He called the video "deplorable" and "hard to watch."

Due to the age of those involved, the situation will be handled in family court, he said.

The department has announced that it will be holding a community meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 25 at 221 Erie St.

Note: Story edited at 5:01 p.m. to include fact that one girl has been charged and another will be.

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The Lockport Board of Education created a committee to study the potential renaming of North Park Junior High in 2012. Some community members wanted to rename the building after Aaron Mossell, who was instrumental in desegregating the district in 1876.

Mossell, the son of a former slave, had sold bricks to the school district in the early 1870s for the school being built across the street from his High Street home. But when the school was finished, Mossell was told that his kids could not attend the school. Rather they had to go miles away to the district's "colored" schoolhouse.

For five years Mossell petitioned the school board to allow his children to attend the closer school. Eventually the school board relented. Soon thereafter, the school district did away with the "colored" school completely, desegregating the district decades before the federal government outlawed segregation.

When the original group - comprised of local business leader David Kinyon, former Alderwoman Flora McKenzie, community leader Mark Sanders, Wayne Ginty, Mike Finn, Desiree Wiley, Miles Patterson and Marion Hannigan - approached the school board about renaming North Park, one of only two district schools without a namesake, it seemed like a slam dunk.

Wednesday night, however, the district-appointed naming committee, which included none of the original community group, suggested against the renaming the building, opting instead to propose the district tell Mossell's story "as part of a history class," as school board member Thomas Fiegl put it.

The committee also suggested possibly naming a driveway after Mossell. Or building a brick wall with a granite plaque in his honor.

They explained that of the district buildings that are named, no one knows the stories of the namesakes. In time, they suggest, Mossell's memory will fade if a building is named after him. But that history class they're suggesting could obviously never be changed.

Mossell was a pioneer, putting Lockport light years ahead of other school districts across the country. The former brick deserves to be properly honored with more than a wall. Deciding to name North Park after him should have taken weeks - at most. Instead five months later they suggest a consolation prize in the form of a driveway.

The committee was right on one regard, though. Lockportians are painfully unaware of who Emmet Belknap, Roy B. Kelley, Charlotte Cross, George Southard, Anna Merritt, Charles Upson and John Pound are. But whose fault is that? Those who are educating our students.

Lockport should adopt a local history component in its curriculum, including, but not limited to, letting people know who their schools are named after. Aaron Mossell should be on that list because his name should be carved in stone on what is currently called North Park Junior High.

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Aaron Mossell helped to build the Lockport School District, selling bricks for the school built across from his High Street home. Then he changed it even more when after a five-year struggle his children were allowed to attend that school rather than being forced to attend the one-room school house for "colored" children several miles away, leading to the eventual desegregation of the district.

To honor him, the district considered renaming North Park Junior High School after the 19th century businessman. In the end, it was decided that there are better ways to pay tribute.

The naming committee recommended to the Lockport School Board on Wednesday that the district teach Mossell’s story to district students rather than rename the school on the corner of Passaic Avenue and Green Street. They also suggested honoring him by naming a new driveway after him and/or building a brick and granite memorial in his honor.

Members of the naming committee expressed that - in time - the meaning behind the renaming of the building would be lost, explaining that the current-named district buildings have no meaning to those in the community. With the exception of the high school and North Park, all district schools bear the name of a former person of prominence in the city.

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People rely on news from official sources.

Here at East Niagara Post, we attempt to give you the most accurate information possible. Whether that information comes from a press release, a first-hand account or the word on the street, we strive to bring you the most up-to-date information possible.

Sometimes, as in the case of the alleged threat at North Park Junior High School, that is incredibly difficult.

What we heard from parents of North Park students was that a student at the school had gotten into a fight with another student and vowed to take revenge - with a gun - upon his return to school on Monday. If anyone got in his way, they were going to get shot too, is what we were told.

What we got from official sources, including the Lockport Police Department and the Lockport City School District is that there was a threat of some sort made by someone but it wasn't anything to worry about.

North Park Junior High School Principal Dr. Ryan Shoenfeld sent an incredibly vague letter home to North Park parents on Wednesday saying that there was some sort of threat made but precautions were put into place that made that threat a non-issue, and the threat itself wasn't real.

In short, what Shoenfeld told parents was that there was never a threat but they're adding a police presence to the junior high for two weeks in an effort to show strength.

The letter goes on to complain about rumors in the community, obviously alluding to the discussion parents were having about the threat, many of whom had heard from their children that a problem student was bringing a gun to school on Monday hoping to exact revenge on another student and would further take out anyone in his way.

The junior high's statement to parents was so vague, however, that it left parents questioning the validity, accuracy and even factual or full-disclosure of information by the school administration. Likewise, the police department statement on the issue was also vague, leaving more questions than answers.

In the absence of fact, people tend to draw their own conclusions. Sometimes those conclusions are based on logic. Sometimes they're based on fancy. But they obviously can't be based on fact if the facts are withheld.

If Dr. Shoenfeld and the Lockport police want people to not draw their own conclusions, they should be more forthright with them. We understand not wanting to cause a panic, but we believe that their vagueness may have just caused more panic than simply being forthright would have.

Whether or not a student threatened to shoot up the school come Monday, it is the most detailed information anyone has. The fact that it may be wholly inaccurate is neither here nor there, it is something tangible that people can wrap their heads around and understand.

Many parents have said that they're keeping their kids home on Monday. Who could blame them? When all they get from official sources is "there's nothing to see here," they're forced to come to their own conclusions of what the situation is and act on those conclusions.

We hope that in the future the Lockport City School District and the Lockport Police Department would be more open with what they had heard instead of leaving parents to come up with their own ideas of what's going on.

In the absence of official fact-filled statements regarding the situation that occurred leading up to the concerns of safety threats at North Park Junior High School, we are inclined to listen to some of the information presented by the students and parents, or "rumors" as stated by the school, that have surfaced. Those rumors say that on Monday a student is bringing a gun to school with the intention of using it. Like many of the concerns voiced by parents of North Park students, we wouldn't want our kids anywhere near that situation either.

It will be interesting to see how many NPJHS students are "sick" on Monday. We know that if we had kids at the school, ours would be.

— Editor, ENP

PERSPECTIVES are the opinions of staff of East Niagara Post and may not be indicative of the opinions of our advertisers. 

CONTRIBUTED: Click to read in its entirety.

As reported earlier, Lockport police and the Lockport City School District addressed a threat today made by a student via a press release by LPD.

In addition to the press release, the school district sent a letter home to North Park Junior High School parents informing them of the situation and saying it was all under control.

Both LPD and the school district have been vague about the threat but a North Park parent told ENP that his child said a student was planning to bring a gun to school, specifically aimed at one student but with the added intention of shooting anyone that got in his way.

The letter specifically states that the school found out about the threat on Tuesday and investigated it, concluding that a real threat does not exist. It added that increased security would be implemented at the school for two weeks leading into Christmas break. It is signed by NPJHS Principal Dr. Ryan S. Schoenfeld. (read the letter in its entirety at right)

Some parents, however, aren't taking the school's word for it and have said they plan on keeping their kids home Monday.

A press release from the Lockport Police Department says that an alleged threat has been made at North Park Middle School via a social media site.

The threat alleges that a student is threatening to bring a gun to school.

"Lockport School District and Lockport Police immediately launched an investigation into this threat. Appropriate action has been taken and the investigation is continuing," the press release says, adding that "A police presence both within and outside the school utilizing uniformed and plain clothes officers will be increased for an appropriate period."

The press release, which is also posted on LPD's Facebook page, did not offer student names or dates of the threat but one North Park parent tells us at ENP that the threat was made for this coming Monday, Dec. 16. The parent, who asked not to be identified, said he is considering keeping his middle school aged student home on that day.

Neither the police department nor the school have suggested that parents keep their children home. In fact, the LPD press release said that the department doesn't believe the added security is necessary, after having interviewed all the involved students, but they "intend to send a message that the Lockport Police Department will take any and all necessary measures necessary to insure student and their families that Lockport Schools offer safe and secure environment for learning."