I.S. 89 Students Rally for After-School Programs

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More than 50 I.S. 89 students rallied on Greenwich Street in Tribeca before marching up to City Hall Park earlier this week, hoping to convince city officials to restore funding for after-school programs.
Allan Tannenbaum / Tribeca Trib
More than 50 I.S. 89 students rallied on Greenwich Street in Tribeca before marching up to City Hall Park earlier this week, hoping to convince city officials to restore funding for after-school programs.
With voices booming, 50 I.S. 89 middle schoolers’ rallied for their after-school programs this week.

“Save our programs, save our futures!” the kids chanted Thursday afternoon, May 27, as they marched along Warren Street to a rally in City Hall Park. In his preliminary budget, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed cutting funds for after-school programs at 35 schools across the city, including I.S. 89.

"We're going to show them exactly how many teenagers are going to be hanging out outside City Hall in September if they don't restore the funding," program director Theseus Roche said.

Approximately 200 students are currently enrolled in the school’s sports, drama, science and many other after school programs.

“These kids are so vulnerable, and its important that they’re socialized and that they have a place to go,” said Manhattan Youth executive director Bob Townley, who has helped run after-school programming at the school since it opened in 1998.

The I.S. 89 group was joined at City Hall by students from two other city middle schools.

“If we don’t have [the programs] next year…it will just be a lot of kids out in the street up to no good,” said Gabriela Briton, 12. “It’s just really sad.”