The School I Deserve: Six Young Refugees and Their Fight for Equality in America
(By Jo Napolitano)
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The School I Deserve brings to life the civil rights battle being waged across the country on behalf of immigrant children as they struggle for an education inside an increasingly xenophobic nation. Journalist Jo Napolitano shines a light on recent federal lawsuits filed to protect these children from discrimination, focusing on a southern Pennsylvania case fought in the summer of 2016 against the backdrop of Trump's election. In that instance, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the School District of Lancaster for refusing to admit older, non-English speaking refugees or for sending them to a high-discipline alternative school meant for troubled youth.
One of the would-be students is 18-year-old Sudanese teen, Khadidja, who was told that she was too old to enroll even though state law permitted all students to attend until at least age 21. The teen pushed back and was eventually admitted to Phoenix Academy---a for-profit alternative school where youth where students were subjected to random searches and daily pat-downs.
Napolitano follows Khadidja as she weathers her initial rejection from the school district, undergoes the disappointment of Phoenix Academy and reluctantly decides to join the ACLU's lawsuit. The fiery week-long showdown between the ACLU and the school district was decided by a conservative Republican judge who, to everyone's surprise, ruled in favor of the refugees. His decision, upheld months later in federal appellate court, forever changed the Lancaster school district's admissions policies - and set a hopeful precedent for young immigrants and refugees all over the country.”
