FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 24, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 25
SE Queens Success Academy students demand a permanent middle school
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Hundreds of fourth-grade students,
parents and educators from southeast
Queens rallied on the steps of City Hall
Monday to protest Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
delay in identifying a permanent middle
Courtesy of Success Academy
Students from Success Academy Charter Schools in southeast Queens call for a permanent middle school during a protest at City Hall Monday.
NYPD Boxing team returns to Resorts World
Casino for Halloween fundraising event
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th e NYPD Boxing team will be the
featured event at a special Halloweenthemed
pugilistic event at the Resorts
World Casino New York City in Jamaica
next week.
Fighters from the 114th Precinct in
Astoria and the 110th Precinct in Corona
will be on the fi ght card, along with
offi cers from the Port Authority Police
Department, Department of Correction
Offi cers and members of the Department
of Sanitation during the “smoker,” an
NYPD tradition where cops with personal
grudges would fi ght it out in the ring.
“Resorts World Casino New York City
has been hosting the NYPD Boxing
smokers for three years. We are grateful
that NYPD Boxing has continued their
relationship with us and chose us to partner
with them,” Resorts World Director
of PR and Community Development
Michelle Stoddard said. “RWNYC recognizes
the strides and progress that NYPD
Boxing has made to implement camaraderie
with NYPD offi cers and New York
City youths.”
Th e proceeds of the event will go toward
supporting the NYC Cops & Kids Boxing
Program, which develops discipline and
self-esteem with youth from across the
fi ve boroughs through the support and
mentorship of the NYPD Boxing team
members. Th e event will be celebrating
the retirement of NYPD Lieutenant Dave
Siev, who was an active member of the
The NYPD Boxing team has a special fi ght card coming to Resorts World next week to raise funds
for its kids program.
Cops & Kids Boxing Program.
“Th e 150/50 rule: it takes $150,000
to keep someone in jail for a year but
only $50,000 to run a boxing gym that’s
free for dozens of kids,” Siev said. Th e
NYPD Cops & Kids Boxing Program
was founded by legendary trainer Teddy
Atlas in 1987.
“It’s Dave’s fi nal smoker as an active
NYPD Lieutenant, so it’s a very special
event,” NYC Cops & Kids Program’s Pat
Russo said. “If it was not for the monies
Courtesy NYPD Boxing
raised by these great events there would
not be a free NYC Cops & Kids Program
that provides hundreds of inner-city
youth a year with positive alternatives
to the streets. All the while building long
standing relationships between police
offi cers and neighborhood youth.”
Th e event is Th ursday, Oct. 24, from
6:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Resorts World
Casino New York City, located at 110-
00 Rockaway Blvd. For tickets and more
information, visit bluelineticket.com.
school location for students from four
Queens Success Academy elementary
schools.
Success Academy families in the borough
have been waiting for more than two
years for a permanent middle school and
when no location was made available for
this school year as promised in 2017, parents
stepped up their advocacy, phoning
City Hall and meeting with Queens elected
offi cials and circulating a petition that
gained nearly 13,000 supporters.
“We are here today to ask Mayor de
Blasio to keep his promise,” Success
Academy Founder and CEO Eva
Moskowitz said. “Th e promise he made at
Riverside Church fi ve years ago: to be the
mayor of all children, to not discriminate
against charter school children, and the
promise he made two years ago: to give
these Queens students a middle school.”
Success Academy High School of the
Liberal Arts students, Tiayna Harris and
Kayla Montgomery, who were among the
194 middle school students the mayor
tried to evict from their school in 2014,
spoke at the rally in solidarity with their
younger peers.
“Five years ago, I was part of the 194. I
felt unimportant, disrespected and invisible
to the education system,” Harris said.
“In truth, I was so visible, the mayor wanted
me to be invisible. When I heard that
Mayor de Blasio was denying these kids
in Queens a middle school, I thought,
again?”
Without a middle school, 227 children
will be forced to leave Success Academy,
where they are thriving. On last year’s
New York State exams, 99 percent of the
fourth-graders passed math and 93 percent
passed ELA. Nearly 87 percent are
students of color and 69 percent receive
free and reduced-price lunch.
More than half of these 227 would go to
their zoned schools, into 36 of the most
overcrowded district schools in southeast
Queens. According to city data, and an
analysis by independent researchers, there
are seven public school buildings with 450
to 1,000 empty seats in southeast Queens,
any one of which the city could use to
serve these students, rally organizers said.
Th e mayor arrived at City Hall just as
the rally was ending at 10:30 a.m., walking
past the protestors holding signs reading
“I want to Learn” and “Don’t Stop Me
at 4th Grade.” His silence prompted a civics
lesson from Moskowitz.
“Scholars, this is an important civics
lesson because he walks right by you, not
as Tiyana said, because you are invisible,”
Moskowitz said. “You are visible, you
have self-determination. Th at’s why you’re
here. You’re not going to be invisible, and
we are going to stand together so you are
visible not only now, but through your
whole lives.”
QNS reached out to City Hall and is
awaiting a response. Last month more
than 4,000 parents, students and teachers
rallied for a permanent middle school at
Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans.
Success Academy schools received more
than 17,000 applications for about 4,000
seats for the 2019-20 academic year.
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