KINGSTON - Concerned about violence at Kingston High School, where recent assaults have required police action and hospitalized students, school district resident Barry Burnett urged the Board of Education on Wednesday to take further steps to protect students.

"From the moment they step off that bus until they get home at the end of the day, they are the school's responsibility," said Burnett, who questioned the safety of a campus that students are allowed to leave for lunch.

Burnett identified himself as a neighbor of the family of student Robert Hedrick, 14, of Tillson, whose right cheek and eye socket required reconstructive surgery after an assault near the school on Oct. 7.

On Monday, a 15-year-old girl was charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly breaking the nose of student Michael Brandt, 16, of Port Ewen, on West O'Reilly Street, also near the high school.

Burnett said authorities have not responded firmly and he will be forced to move out of the district if conditions do not improve before his daughter enters the high school. "We'll move out of the area, but not without a fight," Burnett said.

On Oct. 26, Superintendent Gerard Gretzinger announced the school district planned to tighten security at the high school and deny off-campus privileges to freshmen and sophomores.

Board of Education President Daniel Gartenstein said the violence absolutely is not being used as a vehicle to push for a new high school building, though he does see a new building as a "long-term solution." The district has proposed building a new school on one of two sites in the town of Ulster.

Burnett told school trustees that the school owes the Hedrick family. "They owe them morally and financially," he said. "They have thousands of bills they cannot afford."

Gartenstein said that, in the short term, steps would be taken to re-examine security and more closely monitor the students who leave campus for lunch.

Following the meeting, Burnett said much of the recent fighting appears to be racially motivated, despite claims to the contrary by police and school administrators.

In both the Oct. 7 and Oct. 31 assaults, the alleged assailants were black and the victims were white, but neither crime has been characterized as racially motivated by law-enforcement authorities. Family members of the victims have said race was an issue.

After Wednesday's school board meeting, Burnett said the Hedrick family has been falsely accused of being Nazis. "It's terrible. It's not true, but the word is the family is Nazis," he said. "These kids won't be able to go back to school."

The assault in which Michael Brandt was injured occurred in the wake of laminated cards bearing swastikas being dropped on the grounds of several Kingston schools, other Kingston properties and properties in Hurley and Esopus.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Burnett's wife, Laurie, agreed that something needs to be done, including authorities admitting there is a problem to be addressed. She accused the Board of Education of "sticking their heads in the sand."

The community needs to stand together, Mrs. Burnett said, adding that she is working to pull parents together to mediate and talk with students.

This is cache, read story here