Special needs students at a New York City middle school could be forced off of its campus due to an influx of migrant children as a result of the ongoing border crisis, a looming decision that sparked protests against the relocation.
Justin Holland, a student at West Prep Academy, which is housed in the same school building as PS 145 in the Upper West Side, said he feels like he’s being "pushed out" of a safe space.
"This is a change for me and I don’t like change. I just don’t like how we’re being pushed into a new environment that’s not safe for me," the seventh grader told the New York Post.
Some of Holland’s peers reiterated the same sentiment. India Ringold said the school’s current location makes her feel "safe," while sixth grader Logan Padron added that the new campus’ cafeteria "looks like a prison."
West Prep has a 43% population of children with special needs. As a replacement, they have been given an old schoolhouse with no outdoor space or adequate accommodations for its disabled students, the Post reported. One parent, Bianca Louch, was concerned.
"There’s smoke shops everywhere, and there’s also people outside that are bums, so why keep our kids in the street playing when there’s literally a park right there where they can play basketball and all the sports that they have," Louch told the Post.
The academy’s PTA president, Ty Ellis, said, "We want to make sure that all students are safe, whether it’s in this current building or any building. We don’t want them to just offer us anything, like we are pieces of trash."
What was once the campus of the Ascension School on 108th Street is now proposed to become West Prep’s new home, without any upgrades or modifications to cater to its students, the Post reported. Parents are demanding the city’s Department of Education let them stay or offer an appropriate alternative that would accommodate the students' needs.
This Tuesday, 20 students and parents wore shirts that read "All Students Deserve FAPE(E)," meaning free appropriate public equitable education. They gathered outside the building in protest of the relocation, shouting "Stop the move!"
The Post reported that the schoolhouse West Prep shares with PS 145, The John Tyler School, was already crammed before an influx of migrants began enrolling.
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Denise Johnson, another West Prep mother, was also worried about the state of the school's potential new home.
"This building is not equipped to house students with special needs [or] students that don’t have any special needs — it’s not equipped, it’s 127 years old," she said. "The issue is we are coming from a building that is substantial, with all [the] equipment to service their students to a building that lacks resources."
"The issue for me is the building in itself. It’s not up to par for anyone to go into learning — it looks like a jail. And I don’t think that’s something that our Black and Brown kids should be provided by based off of someone else’s decision," Johnson added. "The parents didn’t vote. If it’s a population [problem], there’s other options."
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During a town hall meeting earlier this year, Kaliris Salas, who serves on the Department of Education's Panel of Education Policy, expressed her safety concerns regarding the children at the proposed facility.
"There’s multiple doors on the floors, where the children can open and can wander around there. There are concerns in terms of outdoor space. We know that children that are part of the ASC nests program have mandated outdoor time and services that cannot be provided in that building," Salas said. "In turn, a lot of us on the PEP are very concerned about this particular move and would love for the Department of Education to address those concerns."
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As community members await in anticipation for the panel's May 22 vote, the academy’s parents made a petition on change.org to "Stop the displacement of West Prep children."
West Prep's principal and vice principal did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the Department of Education.
