The School I Deserve

Six Young Refugees and Their Fight for Equality in America

The School I Deserve
Jo Napolitano
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NZ$ 38.99
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Paperback
h229 x 152mm - 224pg
19 Apr 2022 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9780807055496
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Uncovers the key civil rights battle that immigrant children fought alongside the ACLU to ensure equal access to education within a xenophobic nationJournalist Jo Napolitano, a two- time Pulitzer Prize nominee, delves into the landmark ACLU case in which the School District of Lancaster, Pennsylvania was sued for refusing to admit older, non-English speaking refugees and sending them to a high-discipline alternative school. Six refugee students fought alongside the ACLU to demand equal access to education. One of the students, eighteen-year-old Khadidja Issa, fled the horrific violence in war-torn Sudan with the hope of a safer life in the United States where she could have access to an education. Instead, she was barred from enrollment by the School District of Lancaster and admitted to Phoenix Academy---a for-profit alternative school with multiple abuse allegations where students were subjected to daily pat-downs and random searches. Napolitano follows Khadidja as she bravely decides to join the ACLU' s lawsuit as the plaintiff in the ISSA vs. The School District of Lancaster case. The fiery week-long showdown between the ACLU and the school district was ultimately decided by a conservative Republican judge who, to everyone' s surprise, ruled in favor of the refugees. The School I Deserve sheds light upon the lack of support immigrant and refugee children face in our education system and presents a hopeful future where all children can receive an equal education regardless of race, ethnicity, or their country of origin.
"Napolitano' s compelling story of teenage refugees denied the same high school education as their Pennsylvania peers is both heartbreaking and infuriating. It' s an intimate story, and yet Napolitano' s exhaustive research also underscores the consequences of inequality. This book represents a historical moment as important as Brown v. Board of Education, and every democracy-loving American needs to read it. " --Amy Ellis Nutt, author of Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family"Jo Napolitano' s The School I Deserve--and the legal case it chronicles--is a clarion call for America to live up to its ideals, as a place that embraces those fleeing hunger and persecution. " --Alex Kotlowitz, author of An American Summer, winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize "Khadidja Issa, a young Sudanese refugee who arrived with her family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with aspirations to become a nurse, had to sue her own school district to be admitted because, at eighteen, she was deemed too old to learn there. This little-known story of her titanic and ultimately triumphant battle, along with that of five other teenage refugees, for the education they deserved should be taught alongside the epic struggles of Ruby Bridges and the Little Rock Nine in the civil rights era. No racist mobs blocked Khadidja and her fellow refugees' access to education, but the callously indifferent practices of her local school district had a similar effect. An important contribution to the ongoing examination of inequality in America. " --Dale Russakoff, author of The Prize: Who' s in Charge of America' s Schools?
Jo Napolitano is a two-time Pulitzer nominee with more than 20 years of journalism experience at The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Newsday. Throughout her award-winning career, public education remains her primary focus. She first spotted the trend of public schools turning away immigrant children in 2014 when she was a senior reporter for Newsday; her work prompted the New York state attorney general to crack down on school districts that violated the state' s admissions policies. Connect with her on Twitter @Jo_Napolitano.
Status: Indent title, imported to order
ISBN-13: 9780807055496
Published: 19 Apr 2022
Published In: United States
Imprint: Beacon Press
Publisher: Beacon Press
Format: Paperback
Height: 229mm
Width: 152mm
Pages: 224

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