www.BXTimes.com BRONX WEEKLY August 30, 2020 2
Bronxite wants Columbus gone
Castle Hill resident starts petition to get rid of Belmont statue
BY JASON COHEN
One Bronxite wants a statue
taken down in the borough, following
a slew of historical statues
that have been vandalized or
toppled due to racial tensions.
Recently, Castle Hill resident
and activist, Felix Cepeda, 39,
launched a petition calling for
the Christopher Columbus statue
on Arthur Avenue in Belmont to
be taken down.
“All the Columbus statues
need to be removed in NYC,”
the petition states. “There are
many Italian Americans that
I admire like Mother Cabrini
or Vito Marco Antonio that
the Italian community can
choose to honor. They can visit
the Mother Cabrini Shrine in
NYC. For many Indigenous and
Black people Columbus only
represents oppression.”
With a cousin that lives
in Belmont, Cepeda frequents
D’Auria-Murphy Triangle
Park often, where the
park’s centerpiece is a statue of
Christopher Columbus.
Cepeda told the Bronx Times
a friend of his found the park
closed last week and Cepeda has
returned twice since and found
it open, but with a police presence
in the front. A parks department
spokesman said this was an
NYPD matter.
“It’s very sad that because of
a Columbus statue this park has
become militarized to the point
that the cops can shut down the
park whenever they want without
the permission of the Parks
Department,” Cepeda said.
He hopes the statue is taken
down, but doesn’t want another
to replace it. He stressed if putting
a new statue there is a must
for the Italian community, then
maybe a one of Mother Cabrini
or Vito Marco Antonio. He said
that these individuals are Italian
Americans that did a lot of good
for the poor.
“I think there are so many
people we can honor from our
cultures,” he said. “Why choose
people like Columbus that
for many people was mostly a
horrible person?”
Cepeda said he has spoken
to people Belmont who support
removing the statue, but
elected offi cials have not said
anything yet. He believes the
pols do not want problems
with members of the Italian
American community.
Peter Madonia, chairman of
the Belmont BID, supports the
statue and wants it to stay in the
park.
“The Christopher Columbus
statue has been in our neighborhood
park for decades and has
been a source of pride for our
Italian-American community
for generations,” Madonia said.
“While Christopher Columbus
indeed has a complicated history,
we encourage the opportunity to
better understand his legacy on
all sides.” The Christopher Columbus statue in D’Auria-Murphy Triangle Park. Alex Mitchell
Special education faces tough road
Bronx institutions discuss challenges of reopening in the wake of COVID-19
BY ALEX MITCHELL
During a virtual town hall
on education last week, Assemblywoman
Nathalia Fernandez
promised to continue her ongoing
support for two special education
establishments as they
worked through their unique
challenges in trying to reopen.
Addressing and hearing
from education experts on the
topic of reopening and preparing
for school in the wake of
COVID-19, Fernandez said she
would make sure that the New
York Institute for Special Education
and the Lavelle School
for the Blind remain a part of
the conversation.
One upcoming challenge
that the Director of NYISE, Bernadette
Kappen, addressed is
that social interaction, orientation
and mobility are “critical
to educating visually impaired
children and this requires
in-person learning.”
Lavelle’s Executive Director
Rebecca L. Renshaw took
the opportunity to praise
the parents of her students,
who have faced the challenges
of suddenly adjusting to
distance learning.
She noted that parents have
developed a closer bond and
greater understanding of their
students’ learning process, adding
that it is signifi cantly important
to get these visuallyimpaired
students back into
a school environment despite
unforeseen hardships.
“We must have more and
closer interaction with students
and must have more extensive
PPE (personal protective equipment)
to accommodate that,”
Renshaw said.
One high school student from
NYISE, Iliana Mejia, spoke about
her own learning from home experience,
saying that it “was
very challenging, even though I
am very adept at technology.”
“I missed the social interaction
with my teachers and my
peers,” Mejia added.
She also acknowledged the
challenges of returning to school,
saying that “it’s good to know
there will be mask breaks.”
Both doctors Kappen and
Renshaw detailed other special
challenges and the measures to
address the newly necessary accommodations
that don’t fi t a traditional
public school model.
“An arrow on the fl oor doesn’t
work when you are blind,” Dr.
Kappen said.
To accommodate the students’
specifi c needs, NYISE has placed
thin wire covered with tape on
the fl oors, so students can feel
their way throughout the classroom.
Lavelle has also purchased
new academic furniture to allow
social distancing when students
sit in groups, with new protocols
to limit students passing items
from hand to hand.
Both schools plan to keep students
remaining in the same
classroom while teachers rotate
from room to room, in lieu of the
traditional and likely, outdated
way of students move from class
to class.
“We must ease people back
into school and ask ‘Where are
you? What are you afraid of?’
Create a pleasant time to relieve
stress for children who have
been separated for so long,” Dr.
Kappen said.
NYISE campus on Pelham Parkway. Photo via Google Maps
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