Activist parents in Brooklyn are scrambling to keep migrant children at their current schools after the city evicts them from their shelters.
Some parents of children who attend P.S. 139 in Ditmas Park have posted flyers asking for help securing apartments – or even rooms – for migrant students and their families. Other parents have opened their kitchens to migrant families at nearby P.S. 315 in Midwood so they can prepare traditional foods like arepas, which they sell to neighbors to earn money for rent.
The efforts come as migrant families face a 60-day deadline to leave their current shelters and reapply for new beds somewhere in the five boroughs – a process that could disrupt their children’s educations. Parents said some of the migrant families at the schools will be evicted from their shelters as soon as Saturday.
“There’s lots of places that are saying, ‘We don’t want immigrants in our community,’” said P.S. 315 parent Carrie Gleason. “And it’s the exact opposite around here. We welcome these families and are really worried about them being pushed out.”
The efforts to help around 40 migrant families at both schools are among a number of such efforts in communities across the city, and contrast with an escalating backlash against the new arrivals.
Last week, James Madison High School received a bomb threat and hate calls after the city had migrants sleep in the school’s gymnasium overnight due to concerns about flooding at the Floyd Bennett Field shelter. School administrators opted to have students stay at home for remote learning the following day. The ordeal went viral, outraging Republican politicians. Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted that the migrants “will come for your homes.”
Seeking new shelter
In recent days, Bianca Bockman and fellow P.S. 139 parents have been posting signs around their neighborhood seeking space for the school’s 16 migrant families to sleep. Her daughter’s classmates and their families are facing eviction…
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