El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice is an alternative public high school in

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Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York City.Mac Donald, Heather.
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City Journal ''City Journal'' is a public policy magazine and website, published by the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, that covers a range of topics on urban affairs, such as policing, education, housing, and other issues. ...

''. (Northern Hemisphere) Summer 1998. Retrieved on March 17, 2012. In 1998 it had a mostly Hispanic student body. As of 2012 Wanda Vazquez is the principal.

History

El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice was established as a partnership between the El Puente, a Latino youth development group, and the New York City Board of Education (now the

New York City Department of Education The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (more commonly known as New York City Publ ...

) in 1993 with money provided by New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit sponsor of alternative schools. It was created to teach social justice and human rights to high school students, training them to become community activists in Williamsburg's predominantly Hispanic South Side. Director of the school Frances Lucerna and leader of El Puente and member of the Young Lords Party Luis Garden-Acosta founded the school in hopes it transforms the community as well. The staff is multicultural with no strict hierarchy and work to connect the classroom with real-life experiences.Dryfoos, Joy G. (1998). Safe passage: Making it through adolescence in a risky society. ''North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook, IL.'' Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED425225.pdf The school was originally housed at the South Fourth Street community center until City Department of Education officials ordered it to leave in 2006. The El Puente organization was the first organization authorized by the NYC board of education to own its own public school building and in 2008 moved to the vacant Transfiguration grammar school after the death of the church's long-time pastor.EL PUENTE ACADEMY FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
." El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, El Puente Leaders for Peace & Justice. Retrieved on March 17, 2012.

Criticism

At its founding, critics worried that the school's focus on social justice and human rights might lead to an indoctrination of politics. They feared that students in the Williamsburg area, known for being the city's teen-age gang capital at that time, needed more traditional academic skills for them to succeed. In 1998,

Heather Mac Donald Heather Lynn Mac Donald (born November 23, 1956) is an American conservative political commentator, essayist, lawyer, and author.Charles C. W. Cooke, February 26, 2014, National ReviewYes, Atheism and Conservatism are Possible: You needn’t bel ...

of the ''

'', a publication of the

Manhattan Institute The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (renamed in 1981 from the International Center for Economic Policy Studies) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservative think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs.R. Emmett Tyrrell, ...

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

, criticized the school's culture and specifically its

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

class.

In popular culture

In the 2010 movie ''It's Kind of a Funny Story'', the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice is lauded as a

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. Normally, a student will attend an elementary school, and this also determines the middle school and high school they attend unless they mo ...

for Do-Gooders.

References

External links

El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice
- At the website of the El Puente Leaders for Peace & Justice. {{authority control Educational institutions established in 1993 1993 establishments in New York City Public high schools in Brooklyn Williamsburg, Brooklyn