SIKHNN: Minimal Progress on Bullying Prevention in NYC Schools

From SIKHNN: By Anju Kaur

On his way home from school, Sanjeet had stopped by a local deli to grab a bite to eat when some boys came from behind and pulled off his dastaar. New York City Councilman Daniel Dromm, who was a teacher at the time, saw the incident and tried unsuccessfully to stop the perpetrators.

“I loved Sanjeet,” he told SikhNN. “He was the kind of kid who liked to please teachers.”

Dromm was a teacher in Sanjeet’s school, more than 10 years ago, before 9/11. Back then, Sikh kids were teased just because they were different, he said. With a large population of Latinos, the city was experiencing an influx of South Asian immigrants. Sikh kids became targets of bias. It’s even worse now with the additional bias of turbans being mistakenly identified with the 9/11 perpetrators.

Dromm knew the Latino students who attacked Sanjeet. He reported them to the principal the next day. Their parents were brought in and the offenders were suspended.

“When that child had his turban pulled off, there was nothing to say that this was wrong,” said Dromm. One of the misguided thoughts is why not just take the turban off. They don’t understand that it is part of the religion.

“I recall wishing that we had a curriculum or reference to use as a teacher of how to deal with that.” Today, as councilman, it is still his dream.

Dromm’s district includes Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, LeFrak City, Corona, Rego Park, and Woodside, with a large population of Sikhs. He also is a member of the council’s education committee, which held a hearing last month to evaluate the New York City Department of Education’s efforts to combat bullying.

The June 13 hearing focused in part on the impact of its ‘Respect for All’ annual diversity training program and curriculum. Respect for All is part of the ‘Chancellor’s Regulation,’ a program established by the education department in 2008 to define, track, and prevent bias-based harassment in the city’s 1,200 public schools. The regulation was the result of a grassroots campaign spearheaded by the Sikh Coalition, and other minority groups, after a number of violent incidents reported against Sikh students.

Since its implementation, the coalition’s assessment shows minimal progress in bullying prevention. This is because the program is not mandatory, said Amardeep Singh, the coalition’s programs director. “It is made available in every school to use as they see fit.”

According to the coalition’s 2010 report, only 14 percent of teachers and staff surveyed said that the Chancellor’s Regulation and the Respect for All program were “effective” or “very effective” in addressing bullying and bigotry in their schools. And although the two-day Respect for All training is available to all teachers, only about 30 percent said their school even offered the training.

Respect for All also includes a curriculum of 13 role-playing activities for teachers to use in their classes. Half of them focus on lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, which is Dromm’s focus, and the rest are general in nature.

“We would love to see Sikh examples in the role play,” Amardeep Singh said. “It’s an outstanding request of the (education department). The curriculum would be much more stronger given our documentation of specific issues affecting Sikh kids. The rest is fine and is a good effort.”

“It is a great program,” said Ilana Ofgang, legal fellow with United Sikh, who testified at the hearing. “(But) it does not do enough on a regular basis in the daily curriculum.”

The education committee members recommended an awareness week at the beginning of the school year, but there is not enough of cultural sensitivity awareness in the curriculum for the rest of the school year, she told SikhNN. It also lacks in professional development for teachers and other staff members who are walking the halls or driving the school bus. Bullying often occurs outside the classrooms, but they are not equipped to handle it.

Ofgang testified that teachers lack religious and cultural sensitivity toward Sikh students who reported being bullied, and that Sikh students feel that teachers rarely follow-up on their reports of being bullied. The education department’s efforts to combat bullying have too often failed Sikh students who are bullied, she said in the news release.

Tejpreet Kaur, community organizer for the Sikh Coalition, also testified at the hearing that schools are not effectively protecting their students from harm and are taking too casual an approach in addressing bullying.

Tejpreet Kaur was not available for comment.

“Respect for All is punitive, not proactive,” Dromm added. “It must be mandated in every classroom and included in the curriculum throughout the year.”

The city council also resolved to support the passage of two federal acts, the Safe Schools Improvement Act and Student Non-Discrimination Act that would require direct congressional oversight and reporting requirements.

Although both Sikh advocacy groups also endorsed passage of the federal acts, which focus on basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, United Sikhs asked that they be inclusive of Sikhs.

“For any policy or anti-bullying legislation to be effective in safe-guarding Sikh youth, United Sikhs urged that it must include requirements for any data reporting to include categories for Sikhs or have generic categories where Sikhs can be identified so as to get accurate numbers on the impact that bullying is having on Sikh students,” according to its news release.

NY Daily News: New 'Scrabble' street sign will go up in Queens to commemorate birthplace of board game

From NY Daily News: By Clare Trapasso

Jackson Heights residents may never know what became of a beloved Scrabble-inspired street sign that commemorated the genesis of the popular word game in the neighborhood.

The quirky marker adorned the corner of 35th Ave. and 81st St. for more than a decade then vanished without a trace three years ago.

Now, another Scrabble-themed street sign is slated to go up on the same spot this fall.

"The street sign is a Jackson Heights icon," said City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights). "It's a historical marker of something of importance that happened in Jackson Heights that future generations should know about."

The new one will spell out "35th Avenue," with each letter assigned a point value - as in the game. It was proposed by Dromm, who made installing another sign a campaign promise.

Edwin Westley, president of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, said it was "long overdue."

"The invention of Scrabble in Jackson Heights is another thing we can be proud of," he said.

Scrabble was invented by Alfred Mosher Butts during the Great Depression.

Local lore has it that the game was created while the architect was renovating the Community United Methodist Church in the neighborhood.

"He was a wonderful man and it's a wonderful game too," recalled Alice Faber, of East Elmhurst, who met him at the church. "He was one of the parishioners."

She said it was "wonderful" that a new sign will go up soon.

For years it's been a mystery as to who installed the witty little street marker more than 15 years ago.

The Daily News learned yesterday that it was the brainchild of Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, the former head of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

She received permission from Hasbro, which manufacturers the game, and asked award-winning designer Massimo Vignelli to create the look of the sign, Diamonstein-Spielvogel said.

"I thought it would be clever and interesting and make passersby aware of what went on in that church," she said.

The sign became a distinctive feature of Jackson Heights - much like the bronze penguin on 75th St. - until it disappeared.

Diamonstein-Spielvogel theorized that it may have blown away in a storm or was stolen to adorn a college dorm room or den.

Dromm had his own ideas.

"There are conspiracy theories that Scrabble enthusiasts might have stolen it, that the city took it down - which they deny - that it fell down on its own and someone grabbed it and ran," he said. "Anyone with information should call my office."

NY1: Parks Department Officials Urge New Yorkers to Water Neighborhood Trees

From NY1

The city says it needs New Yorkers' help to keep trees healthy this summer.

With temperatures on the rise, the city Parks Department is urging residents and business owners to water their neighborhood trees.

Department officials say every tree needs roughly 20 gallons of water a week, and the agency needs all the help it can get to keep up with the demand.

"Trees are very important to the environment because they help cool us down. So if we can all work together to keep them watered and in good shape, then we keep the whole New York City in good shape," said Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski.

"We desperately need residents to get involved. It can't be done just by the city alone," said Queens Councilman Daniel Dromm.

"You want to take care of your neighborhood, and that's why we take care of trees," said local business owner Afzal Hossain.

For tree watering tips, visit MillionTreesNYC.org.

The New York Times: For a Bereft Street Corner in Queens, a Red-Letter Day

From The New York Times: By Sydney Ember

The dominant physical presence in Jackson Heights, Queens, is the elevated No. 7 train over Roosevelt Avenue, but many residents have become familiar with a couple of smaller, whimsical neighborhood features.

There is the bronze penguin sitting on a rock on the 75th Street median. And there is — or rather was — the street sign that commemorated Jackson Heights as the birthplace of Scrabble.

The brown street sign, in the style of signs in historic districts, used to mark the intersection of 35th Avenue and 81st Street, near where a former architect named Alfred Mosher Butts devised the crisscrossing word game in 1938.

The sign denoted the Scrabble values of the sign’s letters, like so: 35T1H4 A1V4E1N1U1E1.

People in the community were proud of the sign, erected in 1995, but it mysteriously disappeared in 2008.

“No one knew what happened to it,” said Laura Cadorette, who has lived in Jackson Heights since 1992.

And, it seems, no one even knew who put it up.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission, the agency that finances the brown street signs, said it had no record of the sign, which fell within the Jackson Heights Historic District — as the sign itself noted in the black band on top, though without the Scrabble values.

The city’s Department of Transportation, which authorizes street signs, said it had had nothing to do with the original sign’s installation. It did say that it removed unauthorized street signs wherever it found them, and that the sign, in fact, had never been authorized by the city. But the department said it had not taken down the sign.

“I think everybody believes it was either stolen or removed intentionally,” said Daniel Karatzas, a member of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group and an author of a history of the neighborhood.

On a neighborhood blog, one person suggested it had been moved to a corner with a triple word score.

Now, after clearing bureaucratic hurdles, the neighborhood is about to get its sign back. This spring, Councilman Daniel Dromm submitted a legislative request to the City Council’s Committee on Parks and Recreation to approve the reinstallation of the sign. The request passed and made its way into legislation that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed on Monday.

The new sign will be fabricated by the Transportation Department.

When unveiled, probably in the fall, the sign will sit across from the Community United Methodist Church, where Mr. Butts first assigned point values to letters that would be crisscrossed on a board to form a countless combination of words.

Mr. Dromm said he hoped the sign would spark dialogue and illuminate the area’s past. “This is a big deal for us,” he said. “I think it’s important for people to know and understand the history of the community.”

Mr. Dromm said that during his campaign for City Council in 2009, constituents frequently asked him if he intended to have the sign replaced. Mr. Dromm is a Scrabble lover. When he was a teacher before entering politics, he taught his fourth-grade students the game. He promised he would do his best.

He contacted the Transportation Department, which guided him through the legislative process that ended with the mayor’s signature this week.

As for the bronze penguin of Jackson Heights, that was thought up by a former parks commissioner, Henry J. Stern, to honor the neighborhood’s Argentine population, because penguins can be found in the southern reaches of Argentina. Soon, the statue will again have company as a street curiosity in Jackson Heights.

Speaking of the Scrabble sign, Ms. Cadorette, who had contacted Mr. Dromm about replacing it, said: “It’s kind of an icon of one of the things that happened in the neighborhood. I think it’s great that they’re putting it back.”

Times Ledger: Dromm doles out $250K to immigrant, LGBT groups

From Times Ledger: By Rebecca Henely

City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) distributed his $250,000 member items for fiscal year 2012 among a wide variety of immigrant rights and LGBT rights associations, most of which are within his district.

Dromm, who chairs the Council Immigration Committee, said he based his funding partly on that of his predecessor, two-term former Councilwoman Helen Sears, but also wanted to spread monies out to both immigrant groups that represented populations who have been in the district many years and those who are recent arrivals.

“I really believe there are lots of immigrants in the neighborhood who want to have English language classes,” Dromm said. Many grant recipients host English as a Second Language classes.

The largest immigrant group to receive funding was New Immigrant Community Empowerment, which got $28,000 in two separate grants to assist low-wage immigrant workers and to get interpretation services for Community Board 3 meetings. Recipients who received smaller amounts of Dromm’s funds ranged from the Italian Senior Citizens Center, which got $7,000; to the Jewish-centered Jackson Heights-Elmhurst Kehillah, which received $15,000; to the Latin American Cultural Center of Queens, which received $8,000; to India Home Inc., which received $8,000.

“I’m particularly concerned about the South Asian immigrants who are newer to this country,” the councilman said.

Dromm, who is openly gay, bequeathed funds to a number of LGBT rights groups as well. One of the largest recipients, at $20,000, was the Queens Lesbian & Gay Pride Committee, which funds the annual Pride Parade that Dromm helped start.

Dromm also gave funds to AIDS/HIV groups such as the Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS Inc. and the AIDS Center of Queens County Inc., both of which received $3,500 each.

Another recipient who occasionally does work with LGBT youths was Queens Community House. The organization, based out of Forest Hills but with locations around the borough, received $65,000 from Dromm individually, although not all the money went to programs targeted to LGBT youth.

Other recipients who received a large amount of the councilman’s funding included the street cleaning program The Doe Fund, which received $34,000; the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights, which received $30,000 for two concert series; and the LeFrak City Youth and Adult Activities Association, which received $29,964 to provide homework help, tutoring and other recreational services.

Dromm gave a smaller but significant amount of funding to arts programs as well. Queens Media Arts Development received $5,500 and the Jackson Heights Arts Club received $3,500.

Most of the councilman’s funding he distributed on his own went to organizations that served his district, like the Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition and GrownNYC, which are based in Manhattan.

Organizations from neighboring districts, like Forest Hills’ Forestdale Inc., also received funds. The Brooklyn-based Asian Community United Society, which partnered with Dromm on the Lunar New Year Parade in Jackson Heights, received $7,000.

NY Daily News: Queens pols and residents honor LGBT contributions at awards ceremony

From NY Daily News: By Maxine Simpson

Pride month was celebrated at Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens on June 29 just days after the state Legislature passed the historic Marriage Equality Act, legalizing same-sex weddings.

Borough President Helen Marshall joined openly gay City Councilmen Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) to introduce a number of honored guests and award citations of honor to individuals and groups that have made positive contributions to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community in Queens.

Among those cited were former Army Lt. Daniel Choi, who challenged the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy; Bryant High School Gay Straight Alliance; gay parents Chad Gilkinson and Scott Parrish; Chris Wisniewski, Deputy Director for Education at the Museum of the Moving Image; openly gay activist and disc jockey Sparrow; Gail Mellow, president, LaGuardia Community College; Joseph Palicka, longtime member of the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee; attorney Mercedes Cano; and activist Scott Kramer.

Following the presentations, Hank Krumholtz and Chris Calvert, co-chairpersons of the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee, spoke about next year's 20th Queens Pride Parade and Festival. "We are already hard at work planning for what we hope will be our biggest and most memorable event yet," said Calvert.

The day's event was capped by a toast to the Marriage Equality Act, and refreshments were provided by the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee.

NY1: Gay Couples in Queens Apply for Marriage Licenses

From NY1: By Vanessa Yurkevich

NY1: In The Queens Papers

From NY1: By Rocco Vertuccio

NY1 takes a look at this week's newspapers from the borough of Queens.