In the days following the horrific attack of a 15-year-old girl in Brooklyn, community pundits and social media pontificators have been awash with comments ranging from progressive to regressive thought. But instead of indulging in meaningless blame casting, we should take this as an opportunity to create meaningful change, or rethink how we engage our young people. So first, I say yes, as a whole, we as a community cannot abdicate ourselves from this situation. But immediately after, I put this incident right at the front door of City Hall and say, “Hey Mr. Mayor, what are you going to do about engaging our children after school?”
There is no doubt that we are in a crisis situation. Therefore, we must take responsibility as a community, as a government, for engaging our future generations in music, the arts, and athletics as regular parts of the school curriculum. Some detractors have advanced as a deterrent to after school programs the expenses involved in the construction of community centers. But the reality is that we do not need to scratch our heads in despair because we have underutilized existing “community centers”—our public school buildings! Many of these are unoccupied after school hours; therefore they are our veritable community centers. As a state senator, I have been the sponsor of a bill that reimagines our public school structures and repurposes them into a space where students, families, and the larger community all benefit.
The legislation calls for transforming our traditional elementary and secondary school buildings after normal school hours into “community centers” or Beacon Schools. These Beacons will afford our youth a wide range of activities and services before and after school, in the evenings, on weekends, and over holiday breaks. Involving everything from swimming classes to pottery to flag football, Beacons supplement the education of our public school students while taking up any idle time they may have, as recent events have shown. The Beacon Community Center model was first developed in New York City in the early 1990s as a resource in traditionally marginalized communities. Today, Beacons which are operated by community-based organizations are located in select public schools and provide services and programming not only for our youth, but in most instances, for the entire family. And the results show that the Beacon model works.
This is where the city and state need to meet on common ground. Unfortunately, despite best efforts, we have not been able to have a consistent conversation with Mayor de Blasio in moving forward on this common sense legislation. If nothing else, this brutal daylight attack on a minor should be a wake-up call that our young people need more than just our platitudes. Public shaming after the fact is not a solution. Introducing these young teens to the criminal justice system is not an option. There is no doubt that the young female victim has been traumatized beyond our best sympathetic understanding, and she as well as her family need our prayers and support to the full extent possible. But in this tragic aftermath it is also our responsibility as a community to hold a lighted torch to mark the way for the 18 perpetrators with an aim of ensuring this never happens again. After all, we have not done all we can to provide them with meaningful opportunities, both academic and recreational, to discover their best self.
That’s why I make this clarion call to City Hall. Mr. Mayor, I am calling you to do for afterschool programs in New York City the same as you have done with Universal Pre-K. Credibly, you took on the initiative and fulfilled a campaign promise of extending Pre-K which hitherto had only served half of eligible kindergarteners. Now, we need you to bring that same level of energy and enthusiasm into making full-day learning a reality in this city thereby giving our 1.1 million public school students the best chance they have at succeeding. With eyes wide open we must make our schools not just better institutions of learning, but safe havens as well. So Mr. Mayor, make every school in New York City a Beacon School thereby bringing light, hope, and rescue to the next generation of our children.
