A group of 54 illegal immigrant children have thrown a Georgia school district into chaos because they speak 21 different Spanish dialects, which even their Spanish teachers cannot understand, and many are illiterate.
Burdened by the lack of any additional state or federal funding to meet the needs of these children, school officials have moved them from several schools in which they were enrolled into a separate specialized educational program at the Lanier Charter Career Academy in Hall County, the
Statesboro Herald reported.
"We decided to put them together at one place so we could provide the resources they needed," Eloise Barron, the district’s assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, told the Herald. "It may or may not be a permanent arrangement. If we find that they can succeed in their schools, they will go back."
The children, mostly from Central America, are part of the more than 60,000 unaccompanied youths who crossed the border in the last year,
The Washington Post reported.
Cindy Blakely, the school’s principal, told the Herald, "For students who are fairly capable and not too far behind, our hope would be within a year or two that they are remediated enough to return to their high school, and also that they are able to live in the community and feel a part of the community.
"We're teaching skills in the U.S. that will make you not only able to get a job, but to keep a job."
Many of the children are traumatized — one girl was assaulted by the smuggler who brought her into the U.S. — and Blakely told the Herald, "I can't imagine what that must have been like for a family, to know that would be a safer situation than to stay where they live.
"We have one or two students who are going to be parents because of some devastating situations that happened to them on their way to the U.S.," Blakely said. "We had one who was pulled out of school after what is their equivalent of the fifth grade to be trained as a soldier. His parents sent him to the U.S. because they were afraid he'd be killed."
The flood of unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors has hit schools across the country with serious challenges.
The Washington Times reported that DeKalb County, Georgia, reported receiving 386 children in August, some of whom speak Mayan and teachers cannot understand them. In Cook County, Illinois, 215 children enrolled in August, while Alexandra, Virginia, reported receiving 231 children, all with similar problems.
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, has been forced to hire dozens of extra staff to handle the more than 500 children enrolled in the parish's schools this year, the
New American reports.
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