I’m reaching out to Manhasset voters because I just visited friends in a prestigious Westchester County school district remarkably similar to Manhasset. Four days ago, a student at their high school committed suicide.
Every parent in Manhasset seeks the best academics and athletics. We avoid this subject, but we also know some of our students need mental health services. Yet a small group of parents recently opposed a partnership between the schools and Northwell Health to offer such services free to interested families.
Allison O’Brien Silva, running for the school board, has the guts to say we must watch out for our kids’ emotional well-being. Allison is a mother of three, a Girl Scout leader who shows up for school events. Also, she has the financial background essential to any school board: A graduate of the Columbia Business School, she worked at a leading consulting firm, McKinsey & Company.
Let’s all pledge to model good behavior for our kids: Don’t play childish games, don’t spreading rumors about candidates. No one running for school board intends to plant Critical Race Theory in classrooms or sneak trans players onto teams.
Allison will make sure the school board listens to everyone. She refuses to speak ill of other candidates. Those of us who know her can say this: She has no conflicts of interest, no skeletons in her closets.
Click on the first few minutes of the League of Women voters candidate forum and watch for yourself: Allison makes smart, impartial statements. She’s concerned about our kids —not smear campaigns or vengeance.
My friends in Westchester would tell you this: On Tuesday, we need to turn out to the polls as if our kids’ well-being depends on every vote.
—Dave Marcus
Dave Marcus, a father of four in Manhasset, is the author of Acceptance (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), a book about Long Island students applying to colleges.
