Avonte Oquendo’s grandmother made a plea Thursday for a bill that would require alarms on school doors — but the de Blasio administration is opposing the measure.
Doris McCoy, whose autistic grandson was found dead after slipping out of his Queens school, said door alarms might have saved the boy.
“I’m definitely going to keep pushing,” she said, calling the proposal long overdue. “They’ve held off too long. Way before this happened to Avonte, it should have been done.”
But Department of Education officials testified against the mandate for elementary and special ed schools, which they said would cost $9 million.
“There is no one-size-fits-all response that will prevent a student from leaving a school building without permission,” said Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm.
She said alarms can’t replace adult supervision and are likely to go off frequently when there’s no emergency and disturb some autistic kids who are especially sensitive to noise.
“We just want to retain discretion to place [alarms] where we feel appropriate,” she said.
Councilman Robert Cornegy (D-Brooklyn), the bill’s sponsor, said he was “disturbed” by the city opposition, noting eight other kids have left their school buildings since Avonte’s death.
“What I’m asking for here is a safety net to protect all children in the building,” he said.