Catholic Schools Open Doors to Storm-Tossed Students
By JOSEPH BERGER
Published: December 25, 2012
The scene at St. Patrick School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, seemed no different from that at any other parochial school: Students stood bright-eyed and fidgety in choirlike rows around the auditorium stage, rehearsing carols for an annual Christmas pageant.
But sprinkled among them were two dozen public school students from the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens who had been marooned by Hurricane Sandy and were taken in as refugees of sorts. Nearly two months later, they are still there, and so far they are not being asked to pay tuition.
Over 200 public school students from the ravaged Rockaways were dispersed to a half-dozen Roman Catholic schools in southern Brooklyn — in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Mill Basin and Marine Park — according to officials of the Diocese of Brooklyn, which includes Queens. And for the first time in their young lives, some students are reciting morning prayers, attending daily religion classes and wearing plaid jumpers or regulation navy slacks, though the schools are not requiring uniforms.
Some students are adjusting to unfamiliar faces, while others are delighted to be attending classes with cousins and friends they know from once-careless summers on Breezy Point’s beaches.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/education/storm-tossed-queens-students-find-haven-in-brooklyn-catholic-schools.html?_r=0
