SOMERS, N.Y. - The GOP candidate for Westchester County Executive is demanding an “independent investigation” of the way the county vets and trains school resource officers.
Flanked by Somers Supervisor Robert Scorrano and state Assemblyman Matt Slater, Christine Sculti held a press conference in White Plains last week to slam Democratic rival County Executive Ken Jenkins and the county’s Department of Public Safety (DPS), which oversees the SRO program.
The politicians' outrage was focused on the placement of SR0 Tanisha Blanche in the Somers Central School District who later had to be reassigned for allegedly posting insensitive and inflammatory remarks on social media about the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“What happened in Somers is more than a bureaucratic mistake. It’s a betrayal of trust and a threat to children’s lives,” said Sculti, adding that it shows a “lack of empathy.”
Sculti brandished an Aug. 22 letter – but did not quote from it directly at the press conference -- sent to Jenkins, Deputy County Executive Richard Wishnie, DPS Commissioner Terrance Rayor, and others, by Chris Platania, the Somers school district’s chief emergency officer and assistant superintendent for business and operations.
She cited it as evidence that the DPS had ignored “direct warnings from the Somers School District about poor training, broken communication, and safety gaps” in the SRO program.
(Halston Media obtained copies of that letter and Raynor’s Aug. 26 response.)
“I’ve seen the August 22 letter from the district. Their worst fears came true — and Jenkins ignored them. This is malfeasance, not mismanagement and it cannot stand,” Sculti asserted in a later Facebook post.
Platania had attached a letter to Raynor that expressed the district’s “deep disappointment with the current process surrounding the assignment of School Resource Officers (SROs) to our schools.”
The district has participated in the SRO program for a dozen years, he said, praising the officers for “the critical role they play in fostering trust, maintaining safety, and providing support within our schools.”
More recently, Platania wrote, the district had “collaborated” very successfully with the department’s Lt. Michael DeMaio and Sgt. James Dress, “whose leadership and commitment have made a noticeable impact.”
However, it felt that the retirement of SRO Kathleen Cristiano and the reassignment of SRO Jesse Maracallo had left “a significant gap” in the school safety team.
Both officers, he said, were “integral” to Somers schools and “brought with them not only professional expertise but also strong relationship with students, staff, and families.”
Their absence had already been noticed and the district was, Platania continued, “concerned about the lack of communication, overlap training, and transparency in the process of selecting and preparing their replacements.”
“In the past, we have always introduced our SROs to the school community before the start of school, ensuring that students, families, and staff felt confident in their presence and prepared for a smooth transition. That has not been the case this year,” he wrote.
This has affected the ability of administrators to “plan effectively” and form “critical working relationships” with their assigned SROs, the district claimed, adding that the removal of the immediate SRO hands-on supervisor “without any overlap or transition training, is at best undesirable and, more realistically, an inefficient and unsafe situation.”
“This lack of continuity only adds to our concern about the preparedness of those who may be stepping into these critical roles,” Platania wrote, urging the county to “provide immediate clarity regarding the SRO assignment, their readiness, and the plan for ensuring continuity of service to our schools.”
On Tuesday, Aug. 26, Raynor wrote back to say while he regretted that the process had left the district “disappointed by the replacement” of the SROs, he wanted to assure it that “the safety and well-being” of students was “as much a concern to the Department of Public Safety as it is to the district.”
As a law enforcement agency, it was confident that all its officers “are well-trained in maintaining the safety of the public from a wide variety of threats, including active shooting incidents and others that may impact schools and schoolchildren,” Raynor wrote.
“It also means that we are subject to the life cycle of law enforcement agencies and police officers that includes reassignments, promotional retirements, and the like,” he explained, adding that he understood that the district had been informed of Cristiano’s retirement and Maracallo’s reassignment “some time ago” and had been told more than two weeks prior to the start of the school year that the two would be replaced by Police Officers Tanisha Blanche and Andrew Urizzo.
Both were selected for the SRO assignment “based upon their experience, history of good conduct, and temperament,” Raynor wrote.
Urizzo has prior SRO experience. Blanche was new to such as assignment but “is a parent, possesses excellent communication skills and has a temperament that is well suited to the position,” he said.
SROs are “highly trained police officers who are well prepared to meet the unique needs of the school environment,” Raynor said, reassuring the district that that is what it will get from the DPS.
Raynor also addressed the district’s concerns about Dress’ moving on.
“He has performed admirably in this function, but periodic reassignment is a feature, not a bug, of a career in law enforcement,” Raynor said, noting that Dress’s replacement, Sgt. Richard Maccarrone, will be supervised by DeMaio who was Dress’ supervisor.
DeMaio, he added, will be “primarily responsible” for providing the community with SROs. He will be based out of Cortlandt so he can “facilitate closer supervision of the SRO program as Sgt. Maccarrone becomes more familiar with the setting.”
Raynor concluded that he was looking forward to “our continued success in providing School Resource services in the Somers Central School District.”
Sculti dismissed it as “a bureaucratic response which did nothing to protect the school or give parents any peace of mind.”
While Blanche has been removed from her Somers post, her exact status wasn’t known last week.
According to one media report, she’d been given administrative duties pending the results of an internal probe.
A county spokesperson couldn’t confirm that last week, saying: “Westchester County does not comment on personnel matters.”
However, she emphatically reiterated that the county “does not condone violence.”
One of Blanche’s alleged Instagram posts remarked: “why yall dont have that same energy for the school shooting that took place yesterday, but yall crying over the man that was ok with gun violence … Make that make sense.”
Kirk, a 31-year-old father of two, was fatally shot while appearing before a large crowd at Utah Valley University, the first stop in his American Comeback Tour, a speaking and debate series planned by his organization, Turning Point USA.
The suspect, Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken in custody on Friday, Sept. 12, and has been formally charged with aggravated murder. Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty.
Swift Action Taken
After being alerted to the Blanche’s alleged comments, Somers schools Superintendent Dr. Adam Bronstein reached out to worried parents on Friday, Sept. 12, to tell them that she had been “permanently reassigned and will no longer work in our schools.”
“The nature of the posts glorifies violence, which is completely unacceptable for someone entrusted with the safety of students and staff members,” he said.
Bronstein further reassured folks that the district’s safety and security coordinator, Dan Corrado, and the DPS had things under control and that another SRO would be assigned to the district the following Monday.
“We appreciate the swift action of the police department to protect our schools,” he added.
An SCSD spokesperson told Halston Media last week that they had “nothing to add” to Bronstein’s note in the wake of Sculti’s press conference.
Scorrano and Slater both weighed in at the afternoon event, which was kicked off by TJ McCormack, head of the Somers Republican Town Committee.
“We need to hold people accountable, especially in this day and age,” Scorrano said.
Neither elected official blamed Bronstein.
“I will say one thing, the superintendent did a fabulous, excellent job in immediately asking the county to remove Blanche from her position," Scorrano said.
“He was quick. He was decisive. So I applaud the Somers Central School District for that,” Scorrano continued, adding: “I’m here not only because I’m the supervisor but because I’m a parent and the father of children who are in that school.”
The assemblyman also praised the schools chief.
“His actions were perfect. They were succinct. We’re very, very lucky to have a leader like him right now at the helm of the Somers Central School District,” said Slater, who as supervisor of Yorktown had overseen the expansion of the SRO program not only there, but in the Lakeland Central School District.
“It’s not just about protecting our kids, it’s also about fostering relationships with the kids so they know they can go and actually have conversations with law enforcement officers and about being able to harvest information from kids in our schools that’s really important for community safety,” he said.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here