Wow!! Thank you Greenburgh Task Force. Too bad Sleepy Hollow isn't part of Greenburgh, the task force would be very busy there, too. I've been finding mini ziplock bags on the street, very suspicious, told the SH police about it! Can't people find something better to do with their time and energy than take drugs and sell them?!?!?

When I read in the local paper that EF would be taking over the Marymount College campus, I predicted that it would make the movie "Animal house" seem like a day care. Well, I was right. You will only read about 10% of the "bad" things that happen up there.
It was a poor choice to allow this school in an upscale community, though some Diversity craving Liberals might feel otherwise, I think residents who have been in Tarrytown for over 20 years, feel different.
When I drove a taxi more often in Tarrytown, many times students would ask me to buy them alcohol or where they can get some pot or coke. I would just simply ignore their request and say, where do you want to go now?
Should have been made into condos, great view.

YOUR RIGHT-ON JOHN. BIG MISTAKE . THE POLICE HAVE A BEATEN PATH TO THE SCHOOL. ALWAYS SOME KIND OF PROBLEM. CONDOS OR SENIOR HOUSING WAS THE WAY TO GO.

MARCOS HERMANO, ESTOS MALOS TIEMPOS PASARAN,Y APARECERAN ESOS RALLOS DE LUZ QUE TANTA FALTA HACEN,TODOS EMOS COMETIDO ERRORES,PERO AHORA TIENES QUE ENMENDARLOS,TIENES QUE EMPEZAR A SER N HOMBRECITO Y PENSAR EN LAS CONSECUENCIAS DE LAS COSAS,AHORA TIENES QUE SER FUERTE Y TIRAR HACIA ADELANTE Y SABeR QUE FUERA ESTA TU FAMILIA TUS AMIGOS Y UNA NUEVA VIDA,NO TE DEPRIMAS NUNCA,NI TE SIENTAS MAL,HAZ UN GRUPITO DE AMIGOS Y NO TE METAS EN BRONCAS . ESPERO QUE NO ESTES MUCHOS TIEMPO ALLI DENTRO,INTENTARE ESTAR EN CONACTO CONTIGO HERMANO,PORQUE ESTA NOTICIA
ME HA LLEGADO AL CORAZON.
SABES QUE SIEMPRE VAS A TENER UNA CASA EN MALAGA Y UN AMIGO PARA O QUE TE HAGA FALTA.
SE FUERTE,Y VE SIEMPRE HACIA ADELANTE,HAZ QUE TODO VAYA FACIL Y NUNCA PIERDAS LA ESPERANZA HERMANITO
TE QUIERO MARCOS.
Se que eres un tio legal hermanito,cualquier persona que te conozca,vera inmenso corazon que tienes dentro,igua que lo v yo viejo.
ten cuidado.

I can't belive that spanish press haven't published nothing yet.

Hello all,

I am a teacher at EF NY, and enjoy the bliss and blessing of working with these incredible students every day. I am dismayed by the derisiveness toward our student body. I think it is important for the community to know that the vast majority of our students are sweet, loving, and intelligent people with a thirst for knowledge and an excitement to share experiences with 'real Americans'. Furthermore, these students are from very similar backgrounds as your own children. Of course I understand that there are some issues between the town and the school, but wouldn't we all be better off working hand-in-hand to find solutions rather than engaging in callous dismissals?

I feel it is inhumane to be so quick to generalize and discard the students of EF, or to get carried away in the mob mentality created by the annoyances of cultural differences. Our own children have a unique and incredibly valuable opportunity to interface with a kind, dynamic, and exciting group of international students. We are, as a community, missing an important and edifying chance for cross-cultural exchange and education. We should seek the inception of programs to promote interactions between American students and EF's international students- for both their benefit.

Surely we have more to gain as a community from such a rich variety of global viewpoints and perspective-widening interactions than we would from the stark sterility of a condo complex.

Respectfully,
Karolin S. Yahyaoglu

The people in our community are expected to respect and follow the law. The earlier our children learn and understand that basic concept, the better chance they have to become a productive member of the community.

Marcos ermano, llevo un dia desde e me entere qe no puedo sonreir,
Animo cabron acuerdate lo qe t dije, de todo se sale,
Exale los huevos a esto qe no le as puesto en tu vida y sal pa lante ai dentro como sea, estoy intentando llamar a la carcel esa pa ver si puedo hablar cn tigo
Mucha suerte ermano, toma decisiones y no mires atras, pero piensalas un par de veces antes d tomarlas,
TE QIERO ERMANO GALLEGO

I see these kids taking the Metro North trains into the city every day. They seem very nice to me. I hear them talking to each other on the platform - they have always impressed me in many ways. I've never heard any of them shouting or swearing at each other. Unlike some of the commuters, I've never seen any of them hog more than one seat or act like they own the world. I don't understand the negative comments that are being made here. This is some kind of weird bigotry.

People it's college people do stupid things we are young. It's a shame that you older and wiser people want to automatically kick out an entire college population because one person was selling drugs. I may not know the person but it's not like he was selling to your "precious little angels" neither do the EF students ever interact with the locals they are too busy going to the city to learn about our culture. Speaking of culture they are well more educated and well more mannered than us because they grew up in societies that are much more relaxed and they do not care for materialistic things as much as we Americans do. They are more family orientated and have more values than I or any youth in this town. And as far as the Greenburgh Task force doing such a great job cleaning up this town. How come I walked my dog into the park today (in the 20 years that I have lived in this town) and found the place covered in at least fifty drug baggies, cigar guts, and cigar rappers. What park am I talking about? The one right down the street from the Tarrytown police station next to Walgreens in front of that apartment building. Do police continue to let drugs flow through the projects of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow while they go and bust some kids who have no interaction on the people of this town what so ever? You tell me and by the why to the parents of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow your little "angels" have done far worse than this boy who was arrested.

Another thing the this task force that is doing such a swell job has harmed innocent people too such as one boy who was jumped by task force at the train station and is a star basketball, who was injured, turned out to be the wrong guy. Another boy was arrested in Sleepy Hollow by greenburgh task which means they went over their jurisdiction, and another one had his face beaten in by the tarrytown lakes because he found a small amount of marijuana which upset the task member because the not was lying. How come you never heard of this before? Because they never filed a complaint because it was their word against the officer's word, who is the tarrytown court going to believe? The officer? Or just some kid?

marcos troncooo!
q ha pasadooo hermanooo...dame la formaa de llamartee o llamamee tu..
pero tienes q explicarnos a los de tu zonaa q ha pasado...solo lo sabe gente muy puntual...tus colegas...cuidatee hermanoo...que sepas q te apoyare en todoo...en TODO!!

Marcos !! wtf ?! i need to understand what's happen over there ....
i hope you'r fine and remember .... over there the cops don't play .... but here it's ok.

I would like to make a few comments on some of the posts.
Animal House? Really? John, have you ever been on a real college campus? This place is so far from Animal House it may as well be a day care center.
Ask a cab driver to buy booze, coke and pot? Come on! Listen, if I was a student and wanted to buy booze I would ask one of the students of legal age to buy it for me. Not some old cab driver. As far as buying pot and coke? With all the time the kids spend in the city you yhink they need a local cab driver in a small town to buy it for them? Really? I guess your not one of the cab drivers that charge the kids 20 dollars for a ride up the hill either. I have lived in Tarrytown close to the school for forty years and have no problem with it. I would have a problem if it was seinor housing or ugly condos. Last thing the neighborhood needs is tond more lawn fertelizer working it's way in the ground. Oh, BetteJane Im sure there would never be a need for police activity if they wre condos right?

EF Teacher- You are right. One bad apple should not spoil the bunch. Most of the kids I see there keep to themselves. They for the most part always say hello. What you need to do is, upon arrival, have a orientation and explain the cultrual diffrence here compared to where they are from. Drinking age, smoking areas, open container laws, what time parks close, etc,etc. Proably wouldn't hurt if the school hired a liason that is from the town and understands how things work. That would help in getting the kids involved with the community in a positve way. I'm sure you guys have the money for that. You really don't need someone with a masters degree for that job. Just common sense.

Dan L- Why so angry? Listen. selling drugs is aganst the law, weather they sell them to precious little angels" as you like to say, Or to each other. As far as well more educated? The kid got caught right? Can't be to smart. Besides, you could have all the education in the world, BUT if you don't have commen sense what good is it? Amsterdam has a relaxed society Dan, should we talk about that sometime? As far as the task force and basket ball player I know all about that. I beleive the family my be suing. So get off your high horse.
In closing. Kids will be kids. We need to work togther to keep them on track. No matter how painfull it is for some of you!

I agree with Willie Lester.

Go to youtube and put in Tarrytown tresspassing and see how good these kids are.. I agree, most of them are probably nice, but I also think that senior housing or condos would have been a better choice.
A place like EF belongs in a city, a sleepy, suburban residential area like Tarrytown.

I saw the video on YouTube, but I still don't really see why the EF students are considered worse than the students who were there before from Marymount. Is it because they are foreigners? I don't really get it.......there was always a school on the campus, it has never been senior housing or condos.

marcos muchisimo animo hermano me he quedado blanco de verdad piensa bien las cosas manten la calma y confia en que todo esto pase hazlo por nosotros por tu familia y sobre todo por ti.... ya sabes que despues de la tormenta viene la calma animo hermano tequiero

I don't understand why everyone wants to see condos or senior housing .. I live in the area and the last thing I want to see is condos or seinor housing. It would increase traffic. Right now there are no cars parked on Marymount ave. Do you think that would be the case? the street was a mess when they had college parking. Also, in this econmey who is going to have the money to buy the condos? How well are the condos selling by the river? As far as seinor housing, there is Kendle on the hudson as well as the place on valley street. I have a feeling the people that would like to see condos or seinor housing do not live in the area.

FIRST TO ANS. HERON; IT IS NOT BECAUSE THE EF STUDENTS ARE FOREIGN, AS MANY MARYMOUNT STUDENTS CAME FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. THE BIG DIFFERENCE IS THE MM STUDENTS BECAME PART OF OUR COMMUNITY. THEY WERE HERE FOR 4 YEARS. MOST EF STUDENTS CAN BE HERE AS LITTLE AS WEEKS, AND THEREFORE HAVE NO INTEREST IN LEARNING ABOUT OUR LAWS OR BECOMING PART OF OUR LOVELY TOWN. MM STUDENTS HAD STRICT SUPERVISION WHICH IS SADLY LACKING WITH THE EF SCHOOL. YOU CAN FIND EMPTY BEER CANS, LIQUOR BOTTLES AND REMAINS OF POT SMOKING ALL AROUND THE CAMPUS. THE DESTRUCTION THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE WITHIN THE SCHOOL BUILDINGS HAS BEEN ENORMOUS. THAT WAS NOT THE CASE WITH MM OR FORDHAM STUDENTS. TO MR LESTER, I HAVE BEEN IN THIS TOWN MY ENTIRE LIFE, WHICH IS A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF TIME, MM/FORDHAM STUDENTS WERE ANGELS COMPARED TO THE GROUP THAT IS THERE NOW.

BetteJane - Do you work at the school? You are saying that there are empty beer cans, liquor bottles and remains of pot smoking all around the campus. You seem to be saying that you are actually there on the campus. You obviously have inside information that the rest of us do not have.

BetteJane,, Marymount Students were angles huh? Do I need to remind you of the Mixers they use to have? Little bit of drinking going on there. Guess i never saw Marymount students passed out on the lawn Staurday nights either. I use to party with those little angles to. I can tell you they smoked pot and did some drinking. Do you remember the drinking age when marymount was open was 18? Do you remember all the drunk girls walking up the hill after happy hour Thursday nights at the bars on main street? How about the little streaking incident in the 70"s? Strick supervision huh? Use to see half of those supervised girls half in the bag at michaels weekend nights. Let's face it Betty,, maybe the older we get the less tolerent we get. They are just kids,, just like they were 30 years ago.

The dealer was wrong but most of these kids are good.

I am glad the land was not developed.

HII I was an EF NY student and I had a very nice experience but to be honest, there are a lot of students who smoke or take cocaine and drink in their rooms...This is the reality. I think should be more controls in the rooms.. there are so much nice persons but like the both faces of the coin...the bad side exists ...a lot.

I've been a EF there, and living in the Marymount campus has been the best experience of my life, really.
I'm from Spain, and in USA the laws are very different to Spain, as well as cultural difference. The 1st day FE teachers met us all and told us about the laws in USA,the differences between our countries and America. It's a cultural shock, and it costs to assimilate all the changes. Sending drugs in Spain is illegal too, but not all of us do that, just give a little time and understanding to us. Yes, we're foreigners, but we come to learn the language, culture, lifestyle. the vast majority of us come to learn, don't intend to disturb the tarrytowners.
Also,the 1st day we were told not to disturb you all, and we do our best to enforce the law. Now we're in the USA and we accept your laws.
Teachers do their best to bring order in rooms, but u know, we all are without parents, new friends, in an amazing country,I recognized that I also partied, and even I bought alcohol despite being under 21. In many European countries seeing people under 18 drinking alcohol is normal.
Once we went to Sleepy Hollow, and we were comenting: "Do uu think that going all togethr,20 people, 10 pm, is banned or frowned upon here?"
Believe me, we're trying do our best, we don't know all the laws, just trying to learn.
I understand u all, you want no problems, no noises... just I ask for understanding. There, all is different for us, sometimes a bit shocking, most of us go there just to learn.
Clara

good luck Marcos, all will be solved.

Clara - I agree most of you students are a wonderful asset to our community. We appreciate you.

But you must familiarize yourself with the America 'ignorance is not an exuce' term - just because your laws are differemnt does not excuse breaking our laws.

If you are unaware of our laws you certainly should ask the school as I am sure they would gladly help. Anyway, we do enjoy you being here!