Fencing squad sees success

For the last four years, Valley Stream resident Ivy McKee has petitioned the Central High School District Board of Education to form a district fencing team. Her daughter, Erica, 17, has fenced for a decade, while her youngest daughter, Niki, is currently fencing in the Junior Olympics.

After some internal debate within the district, school officials decided to form a team this past November, and the McKee sisters led a group of novice fencers to the second round of a Long Island-wide tournament. The two finished with All-County and All-Long Island honors. “I thought this would never happen,” McKee said of the formation of a district fencing team. “I never thought they would do it.”

McKee may have been right.

According to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marc Bernstein, the district received a call in 2006 from the Office of Civil Rights, inquiring about the participation of boys and girls in district sports after receiving a complaint from a resident. Bernstein said that OCR officials told him that the difference in boy-to-girl participation in district sports could not be more than 2 percent. After surveying district teams, Bernstein said the difference was 3 to 4 percent. “If we were able to count kickline, it would have made it a 2 percent difference,” he said.

Bernstein noted that if the district did not comply with OCR’s demands to get within 2 percent, the district could have been sued. With that in mind, they surveyed girls at the three high schools and the majority were interested in forming fencing and gymnastics teams. Bernstein added that he did not want the district to incur legal fees from a lawsuit, so it formed the two teams this past November. If OCR had not inquired about the boy-to-girl participation differential in the district, Bernstein explained, he would not have formed the two winter teams because of the district’s financial state.

For Sofia Carreras, 15, the formation of the fencing team was an opportunity to try something new. As a South High School soccer player, Carreras said she was used to testing her endurance and toughness on the field. With fencing, she said, it’s a bit different. “You really have to think on your feet,” she said. “You have to be smart.”