I am dismayed to read that at a recent Sea Cliff Village Board meeting, Mayor Eileen Krieb stated that night after night, children are out committing criminal mischief and their parents are oblivious to where they are and what they are doing and that young people throughout time have found games and other ways to occupy their time, why not our children?

As a Sea Cliff resident, mother of a high school student and North Shore Schools administrator, I say, with confidence, that the vast majority of young people in Sea Cliff find many constructive ways to occupy their time. They are high achievers in school where they earn outstanding academic grades and take part in competitive math, science, literary and social history projects. They participate in extracurricular sports, music, theater and community service. They are working part time in stores, libraries and as babysitters. They mentor younger children. I live on Sea Cliff Avenue, in the heart of Sea Cliff and see these young people when they come out of the pizza parlor, yogurt shop and art studio. I rarely hear cursing, see littering or witness criminal mischief. What I see are happy, engaged children doing what children have always done - leaving bicycles on the sidewalk outside the store, playing ball in the parking lot, traveling in boisterous groups, laughing and playing and growing up.

I understand that there is a small group of misguided young people creating problems that are the result of poor decision-making or general bad behavior. These kind of children have always existed. They were present in the suburban town where I grew up in Connecticut and they were present here in Sea Cliff back when we were all young. However, I assert that not only do the vast majority of our young people occupy their time constructively, but they do it even more than when we were young. We have offered them many more opportunities for positive engagement and they have taken up our challenges. I am in awe of the marvelous things I witness young people doing every day in the schools I work in and in my own Sea Cliff front yard.

I am sure Mrs. Krieb did not mean to malign the many wonderful young Sea Cliffonians. It is a shame for the people who do not have access to the young people I see every day to believe that they are the purveyors of "criminal mischief." It is important that we do not allow the very few young people who cause problems in our community to overshadow the vast majority who strive and make good decisions every day and who will ultimately go out in the world to make us proud to have known them.

Terryl Donovan