What to Know
- The school resource officer critical to a high school community was reinstated this week
- The moves follows the Spring Valley mayor’s controversial removal, which sources say came after he refused to spy on school officials
- Countless students met Officer Quacy Evelyn with hugs and handshakes on his first day back at school
Community outrage in a suburban New York town has prompted a reverse course, returning a critical school resource officer back to the high school and upending the mayor’s controversial removal.
Officer Quacy Evelyn received an outpouring of support from the Spring Valley High School community after Mayor Alan Simon’s controversial call to pull him from the post.
The News 4 I-Team learned late Tuesday that Evelyn had been reinstated by the police chief following last week’s removal by Simon, who village trustees say did not have the authority to make that decision. Law enforcement sources have said Evelyn refused the mayor’s orders to spy on school officials.
Simon has repeatedly refused to answer questions on the matter, instead choosing to launch into loud rants.
“I can do what I want to do. Out!” he shouted in his office last week.
The mayor then suspended his police chief for refusing to lock up members of the News 4 I-Team. The chief went back to work, but Simon dug in, refusing to return Evelyn to the high school post even as students rallied in support of the officer.
High School students in Spring Valley staged a very vocal protest this afternoon over the mayor’s removal of their school resource officer. Sarah Wallace reports.
Dozens had held homemade signs protesting the decision and chanted “bring back Evelyn” outside the school. In the school parking lot in April 2022, Evelyn was the officer who applied a tourniquet to a student who had been stabbed by another teen.
When he finally came back to the school, countless students greeted the officer when hugs and handshakes.
“I am so happy he’s back. The kids, they came together, you pushed,” parent Laurie Santulli said. “We couldn’t be happier. It was a joyous day today.”
Approached again for reaction to the police chief’s call, Mayor Simon suddenly became a man of few words, offering no response to the I-Team.
There are growing calls for a state investigation into whether Simon abused his power and authority against members of the police department in Spring Valley.
NBC New York’s Sarah Wallace reports.
