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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JUNE 7, 2020
Opening up
East New York educators create
online teaching series for
students with special needs
BY BEN VERDE
Two East New York educators
have launched a YouTube
channel to help keep their special
needs students engaged
during remote learning — and
they hope other students will
take advantage of it.
Speech-language pathologist
Crista Conto and special education
teacher Natalie Marek
launched a video series called
CAN Time in April to keep their
students at P-53K, who have disabilities
such as Autism and developmental
delays, excited for
school while they learn from
home amid the coronavirus
pandemic.
“We were thinking of creative
ways to get our kids involved
during this remote
learning time,” said Conto of
CAN Time, which stands for
Cris and Nat Time. “It’s a fun
way for the kids to get involved
and learn something new.”
So far, Conto and Mark have
hosted lessons on important
skills such as following recipes
and identifying familiar
objects in their environment —
while encouraging kids to have
a little fun.
Episodes have included a
virtual trip around the world,
a camping trip, an obstacle
course, and tips on how to use a
schedule at home.
P-53K’s Crista Conto and Natalie Marek on a virtual trip around the world. CAN Time
The pair says the videos aim
to recreate some of the structure
and familiarity their students
have missed out on since
making the switch to remote
learning. Children with developmental
disabilities thrive
under routine, and to have it
abruptly taken away from them
could result in bad behavior,
the educators said.
“Change does not work well
with them,” said Conto, noting
that the videos allow students
to emerge themselves in a fun
activity that their parents can
join in on, without placing any
onus on their guardians to facilitate
a fantastical environment.
“Visually, they can actually
see it, as opposed to their parents
trying to communicate to
them ‘oh, let’s just go camping!’
because that’s very confusing,”
she said.
And families have seized
the opportunity to get in on the
fun, according to Conto and
Marek, who said they’ve heard
from various parents who all
sit down together as a family
to watch their new videos each
week.
“Our parents will tell us it’s
become a whole family affair to
watch the new video each week
and to get every member of the
family involved,” said Marek.
BY JESSICA PARKS
Citing unsafe conditions and
an inability to social distance
during the coronavirus pandemic,
dozens of protesters called
for the governor to release detainees
at Sunset Park’s Metropolitan
Detention Center on May 29.
“Cuomo has the power right
now to free ICE detainees, as well
as incarcerated people,” said Teresa
Shen, an organizer with the
immigrant advocacy group Cosecha.
“But he is not doing anything.”
Chants of “Free them all”
were met with loud, powerful
bangs on the windows of the detention
center from inmates
— who, organizers noted, are
mostly immigrants awaiting federal
court trials to determine
their freedom.
The federal jail on 29th Street
and Second Avenue claims the
second-highest number of staffers
infected with COVID-19 — the
highly contagious respiratory
illness brought on by the novel
coronavirus — and organizers
say Cuomo is putting lives at risk
by continuing to detain people at
MDC.
“He is just letting people die of
COVID,” Shen said.
Literature handed out at the
protest cited a study by former
chief medical examiner for the
city jails, Homer Venters, who
The Intercept fi rst reported found
the prison to be ill-equipped to
prevent the spread of the virus.
The examiner visited the jail on
April 23 as part of a lawsuit over
the center’s poor conditions, according
to the Gothamist.
The protest in Sunset Park
was the last in a series of ongoing
protests titled “#FreeThemAll
Fridays,” organized by a coalition
of advocacy groups pushing
Cuomo on a series of demands
— which also include establishing
an emergency relief fund for
undocumented immigrants, canceling
rent and developing protections
for all workers.
“Every week, we have been
doing actions like this all over,
starting at Cuomo’s offi ce,” Shen
said. “We have been going to different
locations supporting different
causes.”
Activists gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal jail in
Sunset Park to demand detainees be let go, citing fears of people in danger of
contracting COVID-19. Photo by Paul Frangipane
‘He is letting people die’
Protesters call for release of detainees
at Sunset Park prison amid COVID-19