W. Tresper Clarke High School

History

The Walter Tresper Clarke High School first opened in 1957 and was designed by Valley Stream, New York-based Frederic P. Wiedersum Associates. The class of 1959 was the first graduating class, while the class of 1961 was the first graduating class to have spent all four years of high school at Clarke.

The media spotlight was on the school in 1967 when Pete Seeger came to W. T. Clarke High School on March 8, 1967, to sing to an enthusiastic crowd of 1,100 inside the building, and 300 flag-waving protesters outside. The concert was a year late, but it was a victory against censorship. "Mr. Seeger is a highly controversial figure, and as such, injecting him into our community in East Meadow we thought would stir passions, create discord, [and] disharmony ...," the school board said in December 1965, when it canceled a scheduled Seeger appearance. The main question of controversy, the board said, was that on an earlier trip to the Soviet Union, Seeger had sung songs opposing the Vietnam War.

Getting Seeger into the high school auditorium took court battles that went all the way to the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court said that canceling an earlier invitation because of Seeger's controversial views violated both the state and federal Constitutions.

The Nassau chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief to the Court of Appeals, playing a key role in the legal battle.

The high school was again brought into the media spotlight in January 2007 when the school's principal barred a deaf student, John Cave, from bringing a service dog to school. The principal, Timothy Voels, stated that his decision was motivated by concerns over student welfare, such as allergies.

The student's parents responded in early February 2007 by filing a $150-million discrimination lawsuit against the East Meadow School District, claiming that school officials subjected the student to "bias, bigotry and prejudice."

The school was again the subject of media attention in 2025 following the guilty plea of former music teacher Michael Fazio, who pleaded guilty in federal court to possession of child pornography after investigators found hundreds of illicit images stored on his Dropbox account and personal cellphones, including images and videos of some East Meadow students that he had secretly recorded.

Notable alumni

Karl "Bud" Anderson (Class of 1974) — former professional Major League Baseball pitcher

Barry W. Blaustein (Class of 1972) — television and movie comedy writer

Jay C. Buckey (Class of 1973) — physician and astronaut

Chuck D (Class of 1978) — rapper, author, producer, and leader of the rap group Public Enemy

Dan Frisa (Class of 1973) — former Republican U.S. Congressman

Ellen Greene (Class of 1969) — actress and singer

Skip Jutze (Class of 1964) — MLB player (catcher) with the St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, and Seattle Mariners

Samir Khan (Class of 2003) — self-proclaimed "Media Jihadist," killed in U.S. drone strike in Yemen

Ron Klimkowski (Class of 1962) — MLB player for the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics, first Clarke alumnus to play in major league baseball

Abbe Lowell (Class of 1970) — chief minority counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton

Dan Middleman (Class of 1987) — long-distance runner, United States Olympic Team for the 1996 Summer Olympics, competing in the men's 10,000 metres

Eli Rosenbaum (Class of 1972) — U.S. Justice Department official, Nazi-hunter

Irene Rosenfeld (Class of 1971) — chairman and CEO of Mondelēz International, Inc. (formerly Kraft Foods)