Parents and teachers of a Manhattan public school are coming together to demand the Department of Education make classroom space available for students who currently attend class in trailers.
Advocates as P.S. 48 in Washington Heights say they’re worried about their children’s safety in the crumbling structures, and say that the trailers are disproportionately in poorer areas and communities of color.
NY1 has previously spotlighted some potentially hazardous problems with the portable classrooms which can be found citywide, including mold.
The trailers were put in place in the 1990s as a temporary fix to school overcrowding.
Advocates say the situation is particularly puzzling at P.S. 48 since the school building is not overcrowded.
They say the top two floors are all administrative offices, half of which are empty while others are being used as so-called rubber rooms for teachers awaiting disciplinary hearings.
“The condition that those trailers are in, children shouldn’t be in. And you know, if that was a landlord, do you know how many citations he would have gotten?” said Ernesto Velasquez, a P.S. 48 parent.
“You see this weather? When they have lunch, they have to cross over through this weather. Some of them don’t have umbrellas. When it snows, they have to cross over. When it’s icy or freezing, they have to cross over,” said Ammanuel Guzman, a P.S. 48 parent.
“We’re definitely concerned that this is another environmental justice issue,” said Mark Ladov of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
Mayor Bill de Blasio says that his administration is committed to eliminating trailer classrooms citywide over the next five years.
They say they are hoping to set aside half a billion dollars in the DOE’s capital plan to do so. The money would be used for removing the trailers, though some City Council members are concerned there is no plan to determine where the students will go.
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