High school named for slain 9/11 FDNY captain expands to include cybersecurity, law tracks

September 11, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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EAST NEW YORK — A HIGH SCHOOL IN BROOKLYN’S EAST NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOOD renamed for a fallen 9/11 hero has expanded its program for the new academic year, reports the Daily News. The school on Pennsylvania Avenue was named in 2018 after Capt. Vernon A. Richard, a Brooklyn native and a firefighter killed on 9/11. He was posthumously promoted.

The Capt. Vernon A. Richard High School for Fire and Life Safety has officially absorbed the High School for Civil Rights, an existing program on the East New York campus — nearly doubling the enrollment and preparing about 200 more students for careers with the New York City Fire Department and other fields. The school, which focuses on fire and life safety, adds cybersecurity and law to its career tracks. Students in the cybersecurity track will work with the tech company Cisco. A partner is still being sought for the law programs. “The high school has been a vital pipeline to increasing diversity among the ranks of New York’s Bravest,” Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker told the Daily News.

As of June, the Fire Department hired 101 of the school’s graduates as EMTs, paramedics and firefighters.

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