Holding signs reading “we need recess,” New York City middle school students protested the city’s plans to use school gyms to house migrants, according to New York-based outlet The City.
Across its city schools, NYC is considering 20 gyms as locations to temporarily house migrants following the expiration of Title 42, which has left the city expecting an influx of more than 10,000 migrants, according to ABC 7 News. Students and parents protested the use of school gyms to shelter migrants, raising safety concerns, The City reported. (RELATED: ‘A Catastrophe’: GOP Rep Slams NYC Mayor Eric Adams For Busing Migrants Out Of Sanctuary City And Into The Suburbs)
“We support asylum seekers but not on school grounds,” students of P.S. 17, a middle school in New York, chanted, according to The City.
The city has chosen the first six gyms to house migrants, ABC 7 News reported. The gyms chosen are not connected to school buildings that control operations and hold students.
“Each gym, the 20 gyms that we are looking at, we have not made a final determination on all the gyms, but that we are looking at are separate from the actual school buildings,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told the outlet. “They are independent from the school buildings, they are not in buildings where schools are.”
Outside PS 17 in Williamsburg, kids chant, “we support asylum seekers but not on school grounds.” pic.twitter.com/35iFNRuxIw
— Gwynne Hogan (@GwynneFitz) May 16, 2023
Parents protested the use of a gym at P.S. 172 that, despite being separate from school buildings, sits across from a yard where elementary students play, ABC 7 News reported. At P.S. 188, about 75 migrants are being held in a school gym while 300 adults are being housed in the school itself.
“God forbid a kid goes missing. What’s Eric Adams going to say? I’m sorry? No, something needs to be done,” Destiny Martin, the sister of P.S. 188 student, told the outlet.
The NYC Department of Education did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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