Protecting & Nurturing Children & Youth

Students turn to activism to save school

Story and photos by Gregg McQueen

“They want to make sure that you can make it to
college,” said Jaden Stevens.

“I didn’t want the school to go away.”

Christopher Peña, an eleventh grader at the High School for Health Careers and Sciences, was one of many voices who resisted the decision by the Department of Education (DOE) to shut down the school at the George Washington Educational Campus.

Last December, the 400 students learned their school, along with 13 other public schools deemed as struggling, was targeted for closure by the DOE.

And though the curriculum is designed to prepare them for careers in healthcare, science and engineering, the students were soon immersed in lessons on advocacy, civics – and even public speaking.

News of the closure stirred wide opposition, as advocates stressed that closing the school would negatively impact local students of color, which make up 95 percent of the enrollment.

Among those leading the outcry were elected officials, local education leaders, and alumni.

Morgan Mangual learned more about her future than her present as one of more than 250 students from 35 archdiocesan high schools participating in the second annual Catholic Leadership Conference at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture March 5.

The theme for the panel discussion was “Civic Engagement: A Catholic Lens.”

“It showed me not who I am, but more who I’d like to be, and how I’d like to contribute to people who are vulnerable in society,” said Morgan, a junior at John S. Burke High School in Goshen and a parishioner of St. Stephen-St. Edward in Warwick.