The School I Deserve

March 1, 2021
Against the backdrop of America's declining allowance of refugees in the twenty-first century and rising anti-immigrant sentiment, journalist Napolitano documents the legal battle of refugee teenagers to access public education when they were refused entry into their local Lancaster, PA, school and instead sent to a dismal, privately managed last-chance academy. Their powerful narratives, framed by excellent use of statistics contextualizing the human rights issues at stake, span an exodus from genocidal countries to an American federal court. Napolitano uses just enough of the case's legal issues and proceedings to create an accessible courtroom drama. Ultimately, Khadidjah and Mahamed's story becomes an indictment of educational inequities and injustices experienced by schoolchildren in America: underfunded schools, outsourcing to private entities to save money, unequal access to high-quality instructional programs, lack of specialists, culturally unresponsive climates, subjective admission criteria, physical discipline of students, and, most damagingly, a system more concerned with state-reported graduation numbers than student learning. Napolitano's book should be the next step for people horrified by the plight of refugees, undocumented people, and unaccompanied minors.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2021
Refugees fight for education equality in a Pennsylvania school system. In a sleek, knowledgeable study, award-winning journalist Napolitano focuses primarily on the experience of a young Sudanese teenager. As the eldest daughter, 18-year-old Khadidja Issa had high hopes and dreams when her family immigrated to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, after escaping war-torn Sudan in 2015. Though she was told that her education would begin at the local high school, when she attempted to enroll, she was told she had aged out and to seek employment instead even though her younger siblings were all accepted at their respective grade schools. Other refugees received the same judgment. When Khadidja and other interested teens pressed the Pennsylvania school system further, they were given the option of being deferred to Phoenix Academy, a notoriously authoritarian, juvenile detention-like facility with a nasty reputation as a school for "at-risk youth." Frightened and fearful of the academy, Khadidja and her fellow refugee students decided to fight the district to afford them the proper education they deserved. Championed by a driven caseworker, an incensed and determined Khadidja, and a pro bono attorney, the ACLU and other litigants challenged the Lancaster school district's sketchy admissions policies in a class-action case that rocked the region. Napolitano retraces Khadidja's history with great dexterity, detailing the family's terror-stricken homeland and their time at a decrepit refugee camp in Chad. Through their struggle, the author paints a broader portrait of the unfortunately common xenophobia that refugees have always faced in the U.S., prejudice that increased considerably during the Trump administration. Backed by research, profiles, court testimonies, and interviews with teachers, refugees, and immigrant advocates, the book calls into question the vital essence of education and why, even in this modern era of accountability, these injustices persist. An eyebrow-raising report on education that is both enraging and heartbreaking.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2021

In August 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Lancaster, PA, school district on behalf of two Sudanese refugees, Khadidja Issa and Mahamed Hassan, and four other immigrant students, for failing to provide the quality education required by law. Napolitano, a longtime journalist specializing in public education issues, tells the stories of Khadidja and Mahamed with care. The two students wanted to attend Lancaster's highly regarded McCaskey High School, but instead they were assigned to the for-profit Phoenix Academy, an institution that offered few learning opportunities for non-native English speakers. They were not allowed to take books out of the building and were subject to daily pat-downs. A bullying culture, inflamed by corporal punishment, prevailed. Napolitano discusses the students' lives in Sudan and the dangers of that many refugees and immigrants face in the U.S. The most illuminating chapters describe the courtroom action and introduce Judge Edward G. Smith and Vic Walczak and Eric Rothschild, the attorneys advocating for the students. VERDICT This uplifting story, which played out during bleak years for refugees in the U.S., will resonate with readers concerned about immigration and education policy, and those engaged by courtroom narratives.--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

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