Friday, July 9, 2010

Maspeth's P.S. 153 School Yard Closures

"Great use of our tax dollars. Nice new parks and no one can use them." 

Playground Closure Puzzles Area Parent

Dear Editor:

Before school ended for the year, a sign was put up at the entrance of P.S. 153’s schoolyard in Maspeth which states that the playground will be open from 8 a.m. to dusk everyday when school is not in session.

Yesterday (June 29), I took my daughter there after 5 p.m., and the school yard was locked up. A neighbor told me something must have happened and they locked up the school yard for the night.

Today (June 30), I took my daughter there after 3 p.m. She was riding her bike around the school yard. There were other children there playing on the play equipment in the outer yard so I did not have to worry about my daughter hitting them with her bike.

The next thing I know, two men started locking up the gates to the entrances to the school yard. They told me and the others that the school yard closes everyday at 4:30 p.m. I said I thought it was to stay open until dusk. He said only on the weekends will it stay open until dusk.

He said that the following week, it would not be open at all to the public because summer camp starts.

Why did they put up a sign saying it would be open to the neighborhood children everyday from 8 a.m. to dusk when that’s not true? There are lots of children who live near the school who want to use it. The nearest parks are Reiff Park which you have to cross Fresh Pond Road to get to and Grover Cleveland Park which you have to cross Metropolitan Avenue to get to. P.S. 153 is easier to get to and you don’t have to cross major streets to get there.

Great use of our tax dollars. Nice new parks and no one can use them. 
Charlene Stubbs 
Maspeth 

Read More: 

Playground Closure Puzzles Area Parent

Times Newsweekly - July 8, 2010 


1 comment:

  1. Sadly there is discrimination in this school against minorities and beacon Students. Hispanic American and African Americans are excluded and bullied by adults. Teachers and paras openly label beacon kids as weird, not normal, socially awkward, obnoxious, and entitled. Administrators deny minorities opportunities to participate in clubs and activities. Principal and APs punish and suspend minorities unfairly with ease while white students are given special considerations and many chances.AP Murphy is racist and supports her upper grade teachers and parent coordinator when they take discriminatory actions against minority students. Bauer, Murphy, Vartanian, and Vooght smile at minority parents and fool them but the reality is minority children are not educationally safe in this school. They have no respect for minorities. Only white teachers are hired with the exception of two African American teachers. This behavior can be traumatizing to kids. School aids are mean, demoralize, deny kids use of the bathroom at lunch, and humiliate kids. Teachers smoke in front of school, they have affairs with each other, and who knows what else...Bauer cries no money yet she has AC in her office and the APs each have copy machines while kids sit in the heat, sweating in those antiquated rooms while trying to cool off by sitting on dirty floors in the link by the elevators. The mayor must investigate the injustice that secretly goes on here.

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