Mayor Adams claimed Tuesday that his new policy of housing migrants in public school gymnasiums won’t directly impact students s — even as parents protested his latest effort to find ways to shelter the more than 60,000 migrants who’ve come to the city since last year.
“They will not be impacted directly,” Adams said during an interview on 1010 WINS. “They’re not going to be impacted. I’m never going to put our children in harm’s way.”The Us.Mistertruth reported Monday that Adams was either housing or attempting to house migrants in seven public schools, but on Tuesday he sketched out a broader plan that could potentially impact 20 or more public schools.
“This is not something we want to do,” Adams said. “What we did was identify 20 standalone gyms — this is not every gym in every school — 20 standalone gyms as one of the potential locations as we have exhausted our hotels and other locations.”
But parents disagree with the mayor’s assessment of how children may be affected.
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More than 100 parents and students protested at the building that houses PS 17 and MS 577 Tuesday morning. According to event organizers there, migrants were housed in the building overnight, but cleared out ahead of the demonstration.
The city’s repurposing of the gym at the school is particularly fraught because it just opened in January, after years of parents advocating for it.
“We have a new building that we fought for so our children could have a gym,” said Stacy, whose 10-year-old son receives special education services. “They worked hard to get these activities. They have a carnival next week, and they may not have it now.”
“I don’t want my child to be locked up because he was locked up for two years,” said Melida Rodriguez, a parent and the middle school’s PTA president, referring to the COVID lockdowns. “Now’s the time he’s coming out, socializing with other kids — and then this. It’s not fair.”
The policy comes more than a week after Camille Varlack, Adams’ chief of staff, directed all city agencies to identify city-owned buildings that could be used to house migrants and as the city braces for an even bigger influx of asylum seekers from south of the border with the expiration of Title 42, a federal border policy enacted during the COVID pandemic that permitted for the expulsion of migrants coming into the U.S. from Mexico.
The schools that already have been used to house migrants under Adams’ new policy are PS 188 in Coney Island and PS 17 and MS 577. Other schools being considered include PS 189 in Brownsville and PS 172 in Sunset Park, as well as PS 18, PS 132 and MS 577, all of which are in Williamsburg.
For the second day in a row, a spokesman for Adams refused to make public a full list of the schools that are being considered to house migrants.
“As the mayor has said for months, we are facing an enormous humanitarian crisis, having served more than 65,000 asylum seekers in New York City since last year,” said Adams’ spokesman Fabien Levy. “As Title 42 lifts and we see the numbers of arrivals climb, no option is off the table. We have already opened approximately 150 sites to shelter asylum seekers in New York City.”