Long Beach blocks access to city beaches Friday to fend off potential parties

Long Beach police blocked beach access after being notified Friday morning by NYPD school safety officers that three schools were planning to come to the beach for senior cut days.

Police stopped three groups of students on the beach from Flushing High School, a school in Queens, and students from New Hyde Park High School, Long Beach Police Commissioner Richard DePalma said.

"They were upset. They expected to come to the beach but we turned them away," DePalma said.

Police preemptively closed the beach before noon Friday with barriers at each entrance to the beach off the boardwalk. They also worked with state police, MTA police officers on trains and officers stationed at the Long Beach Long Island Rail Road station to stop or warn any crowds heading to Long Beach.

The beach was expected to reopen by 5 a.m. Saturday. Organized activities, such as a Skudin Surf therapy class for autistic students and a volleyball clinic planned on the beach, were allowed to continue, city officials said.

"Our beaches are the pride of our city. They are the paradise our residents call home," Long Beach City Council President Brendan Finn said. "We want our residents and families and our visitors to be able to enjoy them and our city peacefully."

Police were monitoring social media posts of planned parties on the beach following past groups of hundreds of students who gathered on the beach during the day or late at night for "sunset parties."

Several senior cut days were planned Friday, DePalma said, including at Long Beach High School and in Queens, where he said widespread absences were reported Friday. State troopers monitored the Long Beach boardwalk and Long Beach police patrolled the boardwalk in golf carts.

Officials with New Hyde Park Memorial High School in the Sewanhaka Central High School District could not be reached for comment.

A New York City education department spokeswoman said in an email: "Senior cut days are not allowed and have never been school-sanctioned events."

Last week, Long Beach Superintendent Jennifer Gallagher sent a letter to parents warning about beach gatherings that started on social media and often involved students arriving on the LIRR from other communities. She said DePalma asked the school district to help deter students from the large meetups on the beach.

School officials and police asked parents to report any events they became aware of and to warn middle and high school students about the dangers of participating, including potential criminal or civil charges.

“Unfortunately, some of these gatherings have included violent incidents, including two separate shootings over the past few years,” Gallagher wrote. “Beyond acts of violence, these events put a strain on our emergency services workers and police resources through medical emergencies and accidents, especially when the beaches are not yet fully staffed with lifeguards.”

Last July, Long Beach authorized its police commissioner and city manager to close or limit beach and boardwalk access without issuing a declaration of emergency under an amendment to the city code, Newsday reported at the time.

The move came after more than 2,000 revelers, mostly teenagers, converged on the beach the month before for a senior cut day celebration advertised on social media. That came a day after someone was shot inside the Long Beach LIRR station. Two people were taken into custody and a 15-year-old was charged in the shooting, officials said at the time.

"There were shots fired in close proximity to a lot of people and we don't want that to happen again," DePalma said.

The shooting led police to close the beach from dusk until dawn for a brief period last year. Currently, the beach is open with beach passes on weekends from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and starting June 19, it will be also be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the week 

The city also sued promoters of beach parties for an estimated $20,000 in overtime costs and extra patrols the city incurred last year, officials said.

City officials said it was too soon to determine what additional expenses they may face this year, but hoped to avoid any large gatherings on the beach or the boardwalk.

"Perhaps nothing's going to happen, which I hope," Finn said. "And it becomes just another day in Long Beach."

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the name of New Hyde Park Memorial High School and the district of which it's a part.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.