The Decision to Tear Down Lincoln Annex Elementary School for Cancer Institute Leads to Relocation Problems
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is planning to use Lincoln Annex School as space for expansion for their cancer research, disregarding the students attending the school.
Controversy has surrounded RWJUH as they have selected Lincoln Annex School as a location for them to use to create a cancer research institute. The controversy comes from the fact that RWJUH has other locations to choose from, and Lincoln Annex School should be at the bottom of that list as the school has so many students from all over the area. Some students already have to walk to and back from their school just to attend, due to lack of transportation. Students shouldn’t have to be punished for wanting to learn. These students are struggling to make it to class every day and it isn’t fair that they might have to relocate to another school when not only are there other options, but the fact that RWJUH might have chosen the school because of current issues like racial profiling and greed. The vote has been approved for the expansion and a new location has been proposed and accounted for in the budget of the $750 million plan with $55 million going to that new location. This new location will have to be decontaminated, remade, and restructured to suit the students’ needs.
Parents have made complaints that their children will have an even more difficult commute to school when discussing the idea of a proposed new school that the mayor has promised them. Maria Chiquito, a parent of a student, has expressed her dismay at this idea. “A lot of the parents don’t have the money to pay for taxi cabs every single day because the district (is not) going to give us transportation,” Chiquito said. “Almost all of the kids walk home from school every single day.”
It’s clearly a problem for students already attending the school to have to go through such means just to make it to class. Now, this proposed cancer research institute will take away this school from the estimated 750 students. There already aren’t a lot of elementary schools in the area, so taking this one away will hurt students and impact them negatively. The expansion for cancer research isn’t the problem, but it’s because it seems to particularly be targeting this school when there are other locations that can be chosen. These students are being promised a new school that will provide them the amenities needed in order to succeed in their education
A temporary relocation spot proposed by parents and supporters is a relocation for the students at a warehouse on Van Dyke Avenue where students from another elementary school were sent after a remodeling of their school. However, Mayor James M. Cahill has chosen 131 Jersey Avenue as the site of the new replacement school. Parents, teachers, and professors alike are opposed to this idea as they believe the site is contaminated and unsafe for students while Mayor Cahill says that it has been cleaned as needed to be safe for the students.
Aside from this, many believe that this may be a case of racial profiling due to the students being primarily Latino. Minorities have always been looked down upon and are seen as unimportant. The question is raised, would this be happening if the population of the school was primarily white? Again, there are other choices for building sites that can be chosen for the research institute. This could be a possible explanation for why the school was picked to be the designated spot.
According to Juan Gonzalez, a professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University, he says, that only 72 percent of people are filling the beds of the 11 RWJUH hospitals that are currently built. Greed is a factor that community members and parents are thinking is the reason for rushing and expediting this building to be constructed so fast. Construction for the building is expected to commence in June 2020. It’s due to these circumstances that community members think money is the driving force for rapid construction. Community members are also blaming the board of education for falling prey to greed and allowing such a decision to even be thought of.
Many meetings between community members, teachers, parents, and officials have been held, including a march to the Board of Governors meeting where the plans would be discussed. Participants ask Board members to reconsider using the school as the location for the new RWJUH, and to look for better alternatives.
School is important for young children, especially for the future of everyone. Tearing down this school and forcing students to relocate because of the building is an atrocity. Funding and expediting cancer research are an important task. Researching cancer is important for the livelihood of all. A school should not be closed down for the sake of that research, especially because alternatives do exist.
