Community Advocates Meet To Continue To Address S.I. Atmosphere Of Bias
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After a rash of hate crimes this summer on Staten Island, educators say they continue to feel the effects of those crimes in their schools and are working hard to identify the cause of the problem. Borough Reporter Amanda Farinacci filed the following report. Maria Munoz is the principal of Port Richmond's P.S. 20, an elementary school that is home to about 520 students from kindergarten through fifth grade. She says she's noticed a lot hateful comments from students since school began in September.
"'Mexicans are dirty,' they say things like that or, 'Black people beat us up.' Because they see it in the community, they see it," said Munoz. "
This comes after several months in which Mexicans were targeted in more than 10 alleged bias crimes.
"You hear kids repeating what they hear at home, without really knowing what they're saying. So that's my issue," said Munoz.
That issue, and many others like it, were the subject of a closed-door meeting between school principals, community advocates and elected officials Friday afternoon.
A coalition, I Am Staten Island, was formed this summer to combat violence and hatred on Staten Island. Part of its focus now is to increase tolerance for parents and to show them how to teach their children.
There has not been a bias attack in the borough since July, but from April until then there were 11 incidents. Six of them are still being investigated as bias crimes.
Officials believe an increased police presence in the area and a huge community outreach has helped stifle the violence.
"I think we've turned a corner in Staten Island, but citywide attacks against the LGBT community are up and attacks generally of hate crimes are up," said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "So we have a problem, we've made some progress but we have to keep working."
In addition to educational outreach, officials said they are also working on a number of measures to make the streets safer for residents, especially at night.
"We've done a survey of the lighting to make sure that the lighting is appropriate, so that people feel safe when they're walking the streets of Port Richmond," said City Councilwoman Debi Rose. "We are looking into cameras so that the businesses and the community feel safer."
Educators suggested finding more things for kids to do after school and on the weekends.
One possibility is opening the Port Richmond CYO to kids in the evening, for basketball games and arts and crafts.