A few days ago I received a phone call from a desperate parent in California who believes that her community is confronting the same type of fraud that we have already uncovered. When our school scandal broke spring of 2004, with the revelation that Frank Tassone was deeply embedded in the alleged theft, I received an email from Madrid, Spain, a friend of mine had read about our travails in the International Tribune (an arm of The New York Times) and as recently as a few weeks ago, NBC Nightly News ran a very short piece entitled "The Fleecing of America." The eyes of the nation and the world are upon us.

Amidst the entire hullabaloo last spring, we were embroiled in a catch as catch can election for seats on the board of education. The shenanigans that went on were as revelatory of this community as was the scandal. The May 18 election was tainted by the jaundiced cloud of a deviant form of "yellow journalism"----a "yellow" postcard was sent to 4,000 homes defaming three members of the Roslyn School District, including the prominent mayor of East Hills.

During the course of the day of election, a voting booth was removed from service and then returned to service after allegedly being repaired; poll watchers were denied access to the reading of the numbers at the end of the evening, although the election law does not expressly deny such access, (as a matter of fact I have gone to polling places at the end of an election night to record the numbers as they are being read off by the election official); and the candidates were permitted to campaign on school property throughout the course of the election day.

The October election proved to be equally challenging. Several days prior to election, an email was circulated personally attacking one of the candidates. Its intent came in the guise of a veiled support of an opposing candidate. Once again, the Roslyn School District community was subject to vitriolic and defamatory behaviors.

On the actual day of election, at the election site, one candidate's supporters were allowed to enter the polling place wearing campaign stickers, in clear violation of polling laws.

In my 23 years of being an activist in this community, engaging in a variety of local and national campaigns I have never, and I repeat never, been witness to such diabolical and mean-spiritedness. We know the sources of these fraudulent malignancies.

They way we resolve this travesty and how we conduct ourselves, will reveal more of the character of this community than the actual scandal. We need to do some introspection and soul searching. Is the price of a perceived "power" worth the sale of a community's dignity and integrity? Is this how we define "healing?"

Negative campaigning may have produced the desired results of a few, but remember, that in this technological age....the world is watching.