By ERICA SCHWARTZ

Supporters of Kyra’s Champions recently gathered outside state Assembly Member Charles D. Lavine’s office in Glen Cove to call for the state legislature to return to Albany and pass Kyra’s Law.

The crowd marched down School Street in Glen Cove, chanting and carrying posters with messages such as “Child Safety First” and “Kids for Kyra.”

Jacqueline Franchetti, a Manhasset resident and founder of Kyra’s Champions and the Kyra Franchetti Foundation, delivered a speech in an open alley down the block from Assemblymember Lavine’s office.

“What we are asking for is the New York State legislature to reconvene for just one day to pass Kyra’s Law,” she said. “That’s all that is needed.”

Dee Jae Diliberto, a Manhasset-based attorney and longtime friend of Franchetti, said she attended the march to support the family and help raise awareness of the necessity of Kyra’s Law.

“Kyra’s Law would help bring attention to the court systems and would help raise the bar for evaluations by forensic psychologists, so they know what to recognize in these reports to protect the children,” she said. “It would require more education for the people that are involved in the court systems to recognize these signs.”

The event was planned in response to the state Assembly’s failure to advance Kyra’s Law, according to a memo from Kyra’s Champions.

Kyra’s Law has garnered bipartisan support in both chambers, with 97 Assembly cosponsors and 36 Senate cosponsors, but was not added to the calendar for the 2024 legislative sessions.

Franchetti and members of Kyra’s Champions are urging lawmakers to return to Albany to vote on the bill prior to January when they are officially back in session.

Kyra’s Law is named after Kyra Franchetti, Jacqueline Franchetti’s 2-year-old daughter who was murdered in 2016 by her father during an unsupervised court-mandated visit.

Kyra’s father shot her in the back twice while she slept before lighting the house on fire.

According to an informational flyer distributed by Kyra’s Champions, the Manhasset-based nonprofit Franchetti started to advocate for the passage of Kyra’s Law, Jacqueline Franchetti had previously told Nassau County Family Court during custody proceedings that Kyra’s father had a history of “anger and rage issues, suicidal ideation, stalking,” and “coercive tactics and abuse.”

Jacqueline Franchetti said that Kyra’s murder could have been avoided if Nassau County Family Court had listened to the concerns of herself and other eyewitnesses regarding Kyra’s father’s behavior.

“Kyra’s murder was entirely preventable,” she said. “She should never have been with him that day.”

The march date – July 23—was chosen because July 23, 2016, was the last day that Jacqueline Franchetti saw Kyra alive before she went to stay with her father in Virginia.

“Today marks the eighth anniversary of the last day that I saw my daughter Kyra alive,” Franchetti said in her speech.

Franchetti also called upon Gov. Kathy Hochul and Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie (D – Bronx) to get involved with Kyra’s Law and take an active role in helping it be considered in the Legislature.

Shayna Blumenfeld, 17, Kyra’s Champions’ youth ambassador, delivered a speech after Franchetti alongside her friend Téa Cotronis, 16. Blumenfeld said that the government isn’t doing enough to help get this law passed.

“We’re always taught that we should look to our leaders and our government for help, but where are they?” she said. “They can’t help us right now, they aren’t helping us right now.”

Blumenfeld was the first of many youth ambassadors for Kyra’s Champions.

She became involved with the organization in 2020 after hearing Jacqueline speak on a Zoom call. Blumenfeld began the Pinwheels for Prevention in the Parks program, a series of pinwheel gardens planted in local parks to raise awareness for child abuse, in April 2021.

“I really hope we get the message out as much as possible,” she said. “It’s so important that every child feels safe in their home.”

In May, Kyra’s Champions student advocates met with leadership in Albany for a Day of Action to urge them to pass Kyra’s Law.

Franchetti said that many of the student advocates came from personal experiences with abuse and neglect. She said many could not be present at the July 23 event as they could not be seen on camera for their own safety.

Lavine told Schneps Media that the third version of Kyra’s Law was submitted for consideration on May 7, meaning there was not enough time for the bill to be considered thoroughly when the Legislature convened in Albany in June.

When asked if he thought it would be likely for the legislature to reconvene before January, he said it was unlikely but that it would receive proper consideration in January.

“Legislation, especially meaningful legislation and complex legislation—which Kyra’s Law is —requires a lot of checks and balances and full consideration,” he said. “I am confident that it’s going to get consideration when we return in January.”

Lavine said one element of Kyra’s Law that lawmakers need to grapple with is the amount of resources required to provide the supervised visitation facilities the law requires. He said the law must be revisited and refined to ensure it can be implemented properly.

“Our hearts break for Jacqueline Franchetti. There’s no question about that,” he said. “But we want to make sure that whatever is passed is something that the courts can employ and utilize.”

Kyra is among 35 children in New York who have been murdered by a parent during a custody case, separation, or divorce in the last seven years, according to Kyra’s Champions.

Eleven of these deaths occurred within the past year, according to Franchetti’s open letter to Heastie. Franchetti says she and Kyra’s Champions will keep working to keep children safe by advocating for Kyra’s Law.

“We have a family court crisis right now in New York State, and it must end,” she said. “We have the solution, we have Kyra’s Law.”