Families registering students sleep outside DeKalb schools hq
July 2010 US Committee on Foreign Relations- Clarkston Refugees
Immigrants spend night outside DeKalb schools HQ
Immigrant children swarm school district registration office
WSBTV is reporting hundreds of immigrants are camping out overnight at the DeKalb Schools central office to register kids for school on Monday. Many of the adults WSB talked to didn’t speak English and had with them children who recently came across the border unaccompanied.
United States Refugees
According to a July 2010 report from the US Committee on Foreign Relations, from 1975 to 2010 the United States has offered safe-haven to nearly 3 million refugees. Resettlement efforts in some U.S. cities are underfunded, overstretched, and failing to meet the basic needs of the refugee populations they are currently asked to assist. The burdens of addressing the unique needs of refugees after they arrive are passed on to local communities. Many resettled refugees are illiterate in their native language or suffer from severe physical or mental ailments and many are ill-equipped to secure employment.
Clarkston High School, DeKalb School District
The convenient access to the metro-Atlanta job market, nearby highway system, and affordable housing that made Clarkston, DeKalb ideal for longtime residents were the factors that caused the city to be selected as the primary resettlement city for all of Georgia. Clarkston High School students come from more than 54 countries and speak over 48 languages. The US committee on Foreign Relations reported in 2010 that teachers and administrators are said to be failing to address the special needs of the refugee youth, in addition to the needs of the general student population. Consequently, the deteriorating condition of overall instruction has fuelled significant shifts in the demographics of Clarkston’s population.
DeKalb Schools’ Response
WSB reported that a spokesperson for DeKalb Schools said immigrants, refugees and children of non-English speaking families must register at the headquarters so they can be evaluated. The evaluation process takes time and their staffing only allows for 50- to 60 children each day. The school district did not have a suggestion for the parents, but noted this is likely not related to the surge of unaccompanied minors. The district routinely consists of thousands of immigrant students, making up about 20 percent of enrollment.
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”