November 3, 2012, Saturday, 307

The Yung Wing School

From The Peopling of New York City

The Yung Wing School

The Yung Wing School, P.S. 124, is an elementary school on Division Street in Chinatown, from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade. I spoke with principal Alice Hom to find out information about the school, where the students come from, and its changes since 9/11.

In front of the Yung Wing School.

Alice Hom had been principal at a middle school before becoming principal at P.S 124; she has been the principal there for five years now. Even though she was not at the Yung Wing School before and after 9/11, she was still able to give me information about the demographics and policies of the school. Before 9/11, the background of the students was a mixture of Cantonese and Mandarin with some Fujianese present. Ms. Hom herself is Cantonese. After 9/11, there has been an increase of Fujianese students. Ms. Hom even noted that more Fujianese businesses have sprung up on East Broadway. The foreign languages spoken by the students are evenly distributed between Cantonese and Mandarin, and that has remained constant throughout the years.

After 9/11, P.S 124 went through an adjustment period. Many parents relocated, so restaurant businesses closed. The student population decreased because their parents became transient. Shortly after 9/11, there was a fire in the school cafeteria, which brought back the trauma of the recent attacks. The students had to go to another school for lunch, which was very disruptive. Ms. Hom told me that in 2002, she enforced security to limit exits and entry. There were eight exits and she only allowed two of them to be accessible. This policy was not very popular with students and parents, but she felt it was necessary in order to ensure the safety of the school.

P.S 124 does offer free school lunch; this is its second year in doing so. Sixty percent of the students have to financially qualify for free lunch in order for the school to get it. In the past, most of the families were middle class. Now, there are twice as many ESL students; the numbers jumped from one hundred twenty to over two hundred eighty. This is evidence of poorer families moving into Chinatown.

There is also an active PTA at P.S 124. It has always been very active and supportive, setting up fund raisers and such. The PTA was
Street view of P.S. 124 on Division St.
awarded a grant for after school programs. It is also involved in the Red Cross and Project Liberty, which entitles them to therapists and guidance counselors.

When asked what she thought was the future of the school as a result of the new wave of immigrants, Ms. Hom expressed anticipation for many changes. She felt that the school might have to intervene and provide support for the new immigrants, teaching them social etiquette and how to use public resources. They would need a daycare, childcare services, and programs that would help them find jobs. Many of the children are left with extended family because the parents fly back and forth from the Midwest, where they have jobs, which, in turn, hurts business within the Chinatown community. Since the children are left with extended family, they seem to have more behavioral issues. Often, a child will not accept the authority of his or her appointed caretaker, because the caretaker is not his or her parent. Because of these behavioral issues, these children are the ones in most need of a guidance counselor. Also, school faculty are put in the awkward position of deciding who has the most authority and the ability to handle the behavioral issues.

The Yung Wing School is still adjusting to the consequences of 9/11, but has mostly recovered. Dealing with the new wave of immigrants is still a new issue with new challenges, but the school seems to be preparing itself for them.


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