Laura Perez, an East Hampton High School senior scholar-athlete who has applied for early admission to Yale University, recently received a $1,000 grant to underwrite volunteer work she’s doing at the Retreat from the Women’s Fund of Long Island.

    One of two students on Long Island to receive the Shapiro-McCormick Young Woman Leader Award, she said in her acceptance speech, given before a gathering of 700, that she had been “blessed to have always been supported and encouraged by my parents to go after my goals. . . . I believe everyone should be given a voice, regardless of one’s background. As Condoleeza Rice once said, ‘It doesn’t matter where you came from but where you are going.’ ”

    Through volunteering at the Retreat — “a safe haven where women are given a voice” —  she had learned, she said, how greatly domestic violence could alter a life.

    “Many of these women, often young girls, never had the courage to stand up for themselves until it was too late. That is why I feel it is so important to get involved and aim to be a part of the change. . . . To me, standing and watching from the sidelines is the same thing as doing nothing at all.”

    Aside from captaining the varsity field hockey team, Laura, who has logged over 150 hours of community service, is a member of the National Honor Society, the Key Club (which works with Kiwanis), the French Club, the Century Club, and the Retreat’s teen leadership program.

    She has interned with Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., has studied governmental procedures at the Harvard Model Congress, and was chosen by the high school’s faculty and the American Legion chapter here to attend a weeklong Empire Girls State conference this year which stressed “the importance of women’s participation in government and in leading an active community life.”

   Angelina and the Mayflower

    Katharine Holabird will read her book “Angelina Ballerina” tomorrow at 10 a.m. at the Children’s Museum of the East End. Mayfield Myers, a ballerina from the Hamptons Ballet Theatre School, will accompany her. The cost is $10, which includes museum admission. Members get in free.

    On Saturday, kids 4 and older can step back in time to 1621, as Annette Dougherty, a costumed interpreter, tells them what it was like to live at the time the Mayflower sailed across the Atlantic. They will learn about life aboard the Mayflower, have a chance to write with a feather pen, churn butter, make toothpaste, dry vegetables, and play some games that might have been played four centuries ago.

    Programs begin at 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m., and reservations are a must. The cost is $23, $10 for members.

    The museum is on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike in Bridgehampton.

Paper Bag Western

    The Paper Bag Players will gallop into East Hampton on Saturday to present “Saddles and Sunshine” at Guild Hall. The show, created for kids 3 to 8, features cowgirls and cowboys, funny stories, lively music, plenty of dancing, and tons of audience participation.

    The players include Ted Brackett, Laura Canty-Samuels, John Stone, Amy Walsh, Kevin Richard Woodall, and the scenic artist John Peck. The show, according to a release, “deals with making new friends, feeling out of step, and learning how important it is to value yourself.”

    It begins at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $16 for adults, $13 for kids, or $14 and $11 for Guild Hall members.

Just Jesting

    “The Jester Jim Show” will bring the jester, his beatbox sounds, and a trunk full of costumes to the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor on Saturday. Shows will be at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and cost $10, $9 members and grandparents, and $5 children under 3.

    The theater is on East Union Street.

Little of This and That

    Parents looking for something to do with the kids in the next few days might also find it at the East Hampton Library, the John Jermain Memorial Library, the South Fork Natural History Museum, or the Bay Street Theatre.

    East Hampton Library will have two cupcake-decorating workshops tomorrow. Kids 4 to 7 can get creative from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Kids 8 and older can show up at 2:30. Reservations are required.

    On Saturday, a holiday story time at the John Jermain Library in Sag Harbor will include Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and winter solstice tales at 10:30 a.m. Again, reservations have been requested.

    On Sunday at 10 a.m., kids 4 to 7 can make their own “fossils” during a workshop at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. There is a $5 materials fee and reservations are required with the museum.

    Finally, Santa will pay an early visit to the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor on Sunday, arriving at 2 p.m. for pictures, gift requests, and the like.

Parrish

    An open studio for children and caregivers on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. will give young ones a chance to see the new Parrish Art Museum building in Water Mill, and create their own works inspired by art in the galleries.

    The museum will also offer family gallery talks and art workshops on Sundays at 2 p.m. through Jan. 13. The programs will begin with an exploration of three to five works of art, then kids will create projects that correspond to those works.

    Both programs are free with museum admission, which costs $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens, and is free for children under 18. Members get in for free, and their guests pay $5.

Babysitters Boot Camp

    Aspiring babysitters in sixth through eighth grades can learn the skills required to handle the responsibility of taking care of young children on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. at the East Hampton Library. The program will include interactive exercises. At its conclusion, participants will get a course certification.

    Also at the library this week, sixth through eighth graders can chat about books they’ve read during a young teen book club meeting today from 4 to 5 p.m.

    Teen community service volunteers will make holiday cards for soldiers on Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m.

    The library will host Thanksgiving story time and crafts for kids 4 to 6 with an adult on Monday from 4 to 5 p.m.

Stories

    Sima at Sea will weave a tale for kids on Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton. The free program is sponsored by Cultural Care Au Pair.

Live at the Goat

    Liz Joyce and a Couple of Puppets are returning from a puppet show hiatus to offer “The Chicken Show” on Saturday at the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor. Show times are at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

    The show is about a singing chicken who chases her dream of becoming a Broadway star. Tickets cost $10, $9 for members and grandparents, and $5 for children under 3.

Bat Fans

    The South Fork Natural History Museum will present a program on bats and echolocation for kids 5 to 8 on Sunday at 10 a.m.

    Led by Lindsey Rohrbach, one of the museum’s nature educators, participants will learn about sound mapping through games and interactive experiments as they explore the world of bats. Enrollment is limited, and advance registration is required.

    When Julia Tyson, a junior at East Hampton High School, heard about the Sept. 29 suicide death of David H. Hernandez, an alleged victim of bullying at the school, she was saddened, but not surprised. According to Julia, bullying is a fact of life for many students, even in her honor-track classes.

    Julia, 16, an honor student and a junior at the school who is starring as Eliza Doolittle in the school’s production of “Pygmalion” this weekend, is in the preliminary stages of work on a documentary about bullying.

    It is, she said, a familiar topic for her and “one that I thought was a good fit. I’ve seen many films about bullying. ‘The crusade for justice.’ That is all well and fine. I’m not sure how practical it is. I want to focus on bullying and the more practical aspects of it, from the victim’s point of view. Not like, ‘Bullies are this and must be smoked out.’ ”

    Julia, who was herself a target for bullying in lower school and, to a lesser extent, in middle school, is critical of the rationalization that adults frequently make in such situations: “(Maybe) they are friends. Maybe they didn’t mean it. Maybe it was this; maybe it was that. Yeah, the kid really wants to be my friend, that’s why he shoved me off the playground,” she said.

    At the high school, she said, “I’ve given up on the teachers and the administration. . . . They drag us into the auditorium and give us a vague talk. ‘A certain person in this class is feeling threatened,’ ” she said they are told, followed by what she views as equally vague solutions.

    In her classes at school, she said, “there is a boy who is very smart, he is very quiet, and he is emotional.” That, said Julia, makes him an inviting target. When the boy answers a question in class incorrectly, the boys seated around him moan, mocking him. “They heckle him. It is rude.”

    Teachers usually don’t say anything, she said. “There is a kind of ‘boys will be boys’ attitude about it: ‘They’re just teasing him.’ There is a very fine line between bullying and teasing.”

    She said the aggressive behavior toward her began in preschool. “A lot of the stuff was fairly subtle. I’d sit down at a table and everybody would get up. Or I’d be reading a book and somebody would grab it out of my hands.”

    Her mother, Lori Marsden, has painful memories of that time. “She used to come home crying. When they’re little, you know how they would have to sit in a circle? No one would want to sit next to her.”

    Ms. Marsden is critical of the training teachers receive for such situations. Citing as an example having children partner themselves, allowing for some children to be deliberately omitted. It is at that point that the teacher has to step in and not repeat the same exercise, she said.

    As children grow older, the aggressive tactics of the bully are refined. “A little more sophisticated,” Ms. Tyson remembers. “They’d jokingly invite me to do something, then say, ‘We’re just kidding. We didn’t want you to come along anyway.’ ”

    Things began to improve for Julia at the beginning of her fifth grade year. She’d lost more than 40 pounds over the summer, weight she’d put on because she is diabetic. “No matter what people say, they do judge by appearances,” she said.

    Another change for her that year was discovering theater. “I decided to try out for [the school] musical. I did it and I loved it.” She performed in the school play, and has been auditioning and performing in her school plays ever since.

    And, she said, “I started to get my own group of friends.”

    The self-confidence she gained is the key, she feels, to ending bullying. Asked if she is ever bullied anymore, she paused. “I’m sure things have happened that would have driven me over the edge in the past.”

    The local council of the Girl Scouts of America have approved her documentary project for consideration for the Scouts’ Gold Award, the highest honor the Girl Scouts of America bestows. It is given for completion of a project that requires a minimum of 80 hours of work and can benefit the larger community.

    She has to complete the project by next fall for it to qualify.

    As for her longer-term plans: “I’d like to go into acting,” she said, but allowed that directing was ossible career path.

    Meeting on Election Night, the East Hampton School Board considered how to make up for the five days the school was closed because of Superstorm Sandy. Rather than hold classes on holidays, the board seemed more in favor of making school days longer.

    District Superintendent Richard Burns said legislation might be proposed in Albany lowering the required minimum 180 days of school due to the storm.

    Mr. Burns thanked the grounds crew, maintenance, custodians, and other school employees who “were terrific during and after Sandy.” When he visited the school immediately after the storm, he said, “I could barely tell a storm came through.”

    The high school will continue to offer hot showers to the community from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. daily as needed, the superintendent said.

    Jackie Lowey, a board member, praised Mr. Burns himself for his response to Sandy. “He was here day and night,” she said.    

    Earlier in the meeting, Ms. Lowey expressed disgust that the district has a budget item to pay for seventh and eighth grade students to attend the Hamptons International Film Festival. She said the $3,580 charge “rubs me the wrong way. I’m surprised that a nonprofit is charging us for a community event.”

    Noting that students miss classes to attend the festival, she said that “we should take a close look at this in the next budget.”

    Toward the end of the meeting, Ms. Lowey suggested that in subsequent years the board not meet on Election Night.

The Hunt is On

    Tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., children in grades K through 6 have been invited to a monster hunt at the Amagansett Library. The children’s search is sure to take them all through the shelves and many Dewey-decimal destinations.

    Starting on Saturday, those same grades can attend a series of art workshops sponsored by the Parrish Art Museum. In the 11 a.m. workshops, which continue on Nov. 10 and Nov. 17, children can create art in mixed media inspired by the museum’s permanent collection, including works by William Merritt Chase, Fairfield Porter, and Roy Lichtenstein. A fourth session will be held on Dec. 1 at the Parrish’s new home at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. That visit will include a tour of the galleries and time to create a work of art in the museum’s Open Studio.

    The workshops are free, but space is limited and advance registration is required.

    Next Thursday, all have been invited to meet in the field behind the library at 7 p.m. for stargazing. Joe Malave, a local teacher and guest astronomer, will point out constellations, binary stars, and planetary nebular. The rain date is Nov. 15.

Family Fiesta

    A family fiesta will be held at Guild Hall on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m., called “Cuentos: Tales From the Latino World,” featuring David Gonzalez, a storyteller, from 3 to 4 p.m. and crafts throughout the afternoon. Refreshments will be served.

Pumpkin Decorating

    Kids ages 8 to 12 will have the opportunity to decorate pumpkins on Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton. Organizers say the event is not appropriate for children with peanut allergies.

    Through Sunday in the young adult department, seventh graders and up will be making Thai string dolls during library hours.

Stories About Turtles

    Crystal Possehl and her puppet, Lodo the River Otter, will tell stories about turtles to kids ages 3 to 5, Saturday at 10 a.m. at the South Fork Natural History Museum on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike in Bridgehampton. The museum has requested registration in advance.

A number of restaurants will get into the Halloween spirit over the next couple of weeks, with parties, drink specials, and prizes for the best costumes. 

Among them is Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett, where a costume party on Friday, Oct. 26, will feature a D.J. and drink specials from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. A $100 gift card, redeemable at the tavern and its sister restaurant, Bostwick’s Chowder House, will be awarded for best male and female costumes. Gift baskets will be awarded to most revealing, best couple, scariest, funniest, and most original costumes. There will be a $10 cover charge. 

The Springs Tavern on Fort Pond Boulevard will offer beer and drink specials at its costume party, on Friday, Oct. 26, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. This one, too, includes a D.J. There will be a $100 gift certificate for best costume, plus $50 gift cards for best female and male costumes. The Montauk Brewing Company will give out prizes for best couple, best group, scariest, funniest, most original, and most revealing costumes. This one also has a $10 cover.

A Halloween party, with no admission fee, will be held at the Backyard restaurant at Solé East Resort in Montauk on Oct. 27 at 8 p.m. There will be free bar food, drink specials, and a D.J. Guests who arrive in costume will be entered into a raffle for a free weekend stay at the resort. 

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will hold its annual Rowdyween costume party on Oct. 31 from 7:30 p.m. to midnight. Those attending must come in costume. The cost is $30 in advance and the $35 at the door, which entitles customers to one complimentary drink, free snacks, $5 draft beers, and $6 well drinks. There will be a D.J., and $500 in cash prizes will be awarded for best costumes. 

    The use of tablets and electronic textbooks is a potentially valuable development, but educators and administrators must proceed with caution, said Eleanor Tritt, the superintendent of the Amagansett School District, at a meeting of its school board Tuesday night.

    Ms. Tritt cited articles on the topic, such as one on the Web site mashable.com, which surveys what it referred to as a concerted effort by the federal government, book publishers, and the technology industry to “push tablets into public schools.” She also mentioned an article in Education Week magazine that details the considerable influence of the textbook publisher Pearson, which is active in digital education.

    In noting that teachers use Apple iPads in Amagansett classrooms, the superintendent said, “There needs to be more study on what applications are most efficient and effective, and we must be careful about making those judgments, rather than rely on the publishers’ self-interest.” She also told the board that “many applications can be replicated by hands-on material, but others capture students’ attention and focus.”

    School administrators are evaluating the use of tablets and moving cautiously in their wider adoption, Ms. Tritt said, again citing concern that the federal government is pushing a broad transition from paper to tablets. Pearson has recently branched into teacher-preparation products, she reported, saying, “We feel the for-profit companies have undue influence.” 

    The board also discussed the state’s Dignity for All Students Act. The act “seeks to provide the state’s public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying on school property, a school bus and/or at a school function,” according to the New York Education Department. The superintendent and members of the board voiced concern about what they said was the broad definition of bullying, which may also include “cyber bullying.” A firmer understanding of the behavior that constitutes bullying, and a school’s responsibilities and procedures in regard to it, are needed, board members said.

    The board also approved the use of the school gymnasium by the East Hampton Town Recreation Department for youth basketball on Saturdays. The program will begin on Dec. 1 and end on or before March 2. Approval was made contingent on Amagansett students’ eligibility and participation.

    David H. Hernandez, the 16-year old East Hampton High School student who took his own life on Sept. 29, had attempted suicide twice before, with one attempt coming just 24 hours earlier, according to his mother, Carmita Barros, who met with the school’s principal, Adam S. Fine, on Monday.

    Ms. Barros, accompanied by a friend, Blanca Stella Buitrago, presented Mr. Fine with 115 signatures from Latino parents demanding protection for their children and action against those responsible for bullying the boy, which, they said, led to his death. According to Ms. Barros, the school ignored what was happening because David was Latino.

    The women presented Mr. Fine with a letter in both English and Spanish that had been written for Ms. Barros by a Latino employee of the school, who did not want her name revealed, fearing for her job. Another Latino employee interviewed for this article echoed that fear, saying that she would be fired if she were identified.

    The letter singles out six Latino students as the transgressors, and also questions the actions of a bilingual school counselor. While other students looked on, it says, “David was often pushed on purpose, made inappropriate remarks to and verbally harassed.”

    Ms. Barros also demanded copies of all documents and notes regarding her son. Under the state’s recently passed Dignity for all Students Act, “Schools will be responsible for collecting and reporting data regarding material incidents of discrimination and harassment.”

    On Tuesday, Ms. Barros returned to the school, this time with her sister, to pick up the records. A receptionist handed her an envelope. There was nothing in it about bullying, she told The Star.

    “I asked them, ‘Why don’t you have any records of my son’s bullying?’ They said, ‘That’s all we have,’ ” she said yesterday.

    She asked the receptionist why there was no record of two conversations she had had in September with the bilingual counselor about David. Both conversations, Ms. Barros said yesterday, were extensive. The receptionist did not know the answer, and the counselor was not available to answer the question.

    The East Hampton Town Police Department, which is looking into David’s death, has a copy of the letter presented Monday to the school, as well as a letter from Dr. Eric J. Bartky, the boy’s psychiatrist, whom he saw once a week. Dr. Bartky began seeing the teenager in May, shortly after his first suicide attempt. He wrote that “David described to me that he was being bullied in school on a regular basis by some male students who were making fun of his sexuality.”

    The boy’s mother said he had been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment after the May attempt and that the school was aware of it.

    The doctor’s letter continues, “David suffered with this again upon his return to school in September and he became progressively more depressed. David was an intelligent, quiet, very hurt, and confused adolescent who desperately wanted to be accepted by his peers. [He] was not able to find this in East Hampton.”

    It is not clear how much communication Dr. Bartky had with the school. A call to his office on Tuesday was not returned by press time.

    Ms. Barros also questioned the actions of the school administration, both immediately before and after the death of her son. On the day before he died, she said, she received a call from the bilingual counselor telling her that David was wearing a scarf in school, beneath which were visible red marks on his throat.

    “She said to talk to David, why he has these marks on his neck.”

    She confronted him that night. “I looked at the marks on his neck,” she said, as Ms. Buitrago translated. “I asked him what happened. He said, ‘Nothing, Mom, nothing.’ ” 

    “David,” she said, “You want to be an airplane pilot. Don’t do this to yourself.”    At that moment, she said, she decided she would take him out of the school. Twenty-four hours later, he was dead.

    At 9:33 a.m. on Oct. 1, District Superintendent Richard Burns attempted to call Ms. Barros. He left a voicemail message. “Hi, Senora Barros, Rich Burns calling from the East Hampton School district, I’m the superintendent here, I’m reaching out to you to express my extreme sorrow over this particular case. Our hearts go out to his family. If you’d give me a call, I’d appreciate it. I’d like to know if there is any way we could help.”

    He then put the bilingual counselor on to leave the same message in Spanish.

    Unfortunately, Mr. Burns had dialed a wrong number. His message of condolence was, in fact, left on the voicemail of Alberto Aguero, a cab driver in East Hampton. Mr. Aguero had never met Ms. Barros, but word of her son’s death had spread through the Latino community that weekend and he understood the importance of the message. He took it upon himself to search out Ms. Barros and delivered the message to her in person later that day.

    Until yesteray, the school administration did not address the central allegation made by Ms. Barros and other Latinos: that the system ignores bullying amongst Latino students, usually recent immigrants who speak little or no English and are unfamiliar with the culture. Yesterday, Mr. Burns released a statement:

    “The school community is deeply upset by the tragedy of David’s death, and our hearts and prayers are with his family and friends.”

    “It is without question that the issue of bullying behaviors is a very real one in our society. Our school district maintains a progressive, affirming culture of respect and acceptance through student-centered programs and services for families. These include everything from our Gay-Straight Alliance clubs to character education, anti-bias programs, cyber-bullying awareness for student and parents, suicide prevention workshops, and numerous other efforts. We consider our district to be in the vanguard with regard to these efforts, and will continue our commitment to this part of the instructional program.”

    “But it’s not just about programs and awareness. The caring professionals of our small school district are responsive to the needs of every student who walks through our doors. Numerous positive interventions are exercised on behalf of individual students on a daily basis. To the best of its abilities, the district attempts to meet the needs of all students in a direct and personal manner.”

    Ms. Buitrago said Monday’s meeting with Mr. Fine could be an important first step for Latino parents. She said Mr. Fine had told her that “every student is my responsibility.”

    Ms. Barros has applied for a temporary visa to bring her son’s body back to Ecuador for burial, as he requested in a farewell note. On the Tuesday after his death the school held a bake sale, which brought in over $4,000, enough to pay for his funeral service.

    “We as a community failed this kid,” George Aman, the head of East Hampton’s board of education said yesterday. Mr. Aman indicated that the teen-ager’s suicide raises complex questions for the entire community. “We have to do a better job.”

    In response to the suicide of David Hernandez, a 16-year-old junior at East Hampton High School, David Kilmnick, chief executive officer of Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth, has organized a community forum to take place at the school on Tuesday.

    Participants in the 6 p.m. event will discuss the possibility of establishing a G.L.B.T. community center on the East End.

“We will never know David’s true sexual orientation as he is no longer with us,” Mr. Kilmnick said in a letter. “What we do know, however, is that David, like all other teens on the East End, did not have a G.L.B.T. center to go to for support and community like those in western and central parts of Suffolk County and those in Nassau County.”

    The school district will also sponsor a program on cyber-bullying within the next month, a suicide prevention program in January, and Challenge Days next spring. The Gay-Straight Alliance is at the school every Thursday.