Whistleblower Fights New York Officials to Enforce Their Own Child Safety Laws
Stephen and Cathy Cole with their device for safe use of gym partitions. Photo: Long Island Business Times.
Are New York city and state officials doing enough to protect public school students?
Kathy Cole says no.
The co-owner of a gymnasium equipment company has been battling with city and state officials to comply with their own child safety laws for over a decade.
Her crusade stems from the crushing deaths of three students in New York and New Jersey over several years.
The problem is motorized partitions meant to close off sections of larger gymnasium spaces. Once set in motion, if safeguards aren’t put in place, and/or the devices aren’t properly monitored, they can shut on children causing fatal injuries.
In 1976 a boy in New Jersey was crushed and killed in the school gym electric partition. James Pesca, 12, was found lifeless, trapped between the cement gym wall and the partition.
In 1991, Deanna Moon met a similar end in her Long Island school. The nine-year-old got caught between the partition when she tried to slip through. Staff could not retract the wall off of Deanna’s neck so fire fighters had to use the jaws of life. It took 27 minutes to free her. Deanna’s mother was called to the scene but was restrained from coming inside and seeing what was happening. The elementary school student lingered in a coma and died nine days later from her injuries.
In 2001, twelve-year-old Rashad Richardson was looking for a teacher to give him a hall pass when he was crushed between a wall and a motorized room divider in his Whistleblower Fights New York Officials to Enforce Their Own Child Safety Laws | gadflyonthewallblog: