by REERA YOO
The parents of school children at a Queens, N.Y., public school with a racially diverse makeup are up in arms, demanding to know why one kindergarten class consists entirely of Asian students.
According to The Korea Times, parents are accusing P.S. 159 of segregating students by race, after finding that in kindergarten classroom 207, all 26 students are of Asian descent, with 19 Chinese students and seven Korean students.
“It is impossible to accept, with common sense, that an entire classroom consists of just Korean and Chinese students,” one parent, surnamed Lee, told the Korea Times. “Even if they say that they gathered all the kids who aren’t very fluent in English, I don’t understand why there aren’t any kids of another race.”
Notably, the other four kindergarten classes have a diverse roll call of Asian, Hispanic, black and white students, the parents told the newspaper. Such diversity seems to reflect the overall demographic makeup of the school, as of July, was comprised of 42.63 percent Asian students, 31.19 percent white students and 20.53 percent Hispanic students.
The parents said while they understood that Asian students make up a large percentage of the school’s population, they were perplexed by how an entire classroom could be void of more of a diverse mix of children.
The New York City Department of Education (DOE) called the incident a “coincidence” and told the Korea Times that classes are divided randomly.
The newspaper also said that the education department, after being notified of the parents’ accusations, had tried to contact the school’s principal, Paul Didio, but was unable to reach him.
Photo via The Korea Times
