A proposed federal probation office in One Pierrepont Street just across a small street from the St. Ann’s School caused a brouhaha in the spring. Now, according to the Times, a judge listened to the parent’s concerns. Here’s an excerpt from the Times.
Parents were alarmed. Blogs buzzed. Elected officials were enlisted, and, this week, Raymond J. Dearie, chief judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, promised to try to limit interaction between students and the probation office, but said the cohabitation would likely continue.
“What I proposed is that we deal with their specific concerns, rather than this emotional image of criminals walking around Brooklyn Heights, which of course happens every day,” Judge Dearie explained in an interview. “In terms of the kinds of work we do, we can do a lot of things, like altering our schedule, to make this work, but we need to get down to the very specific.”
The school, St. Ann’s, has been educating the best of Brooklyn (and other boroughs) for four decades. The school, whose 1,080 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade are spread over six buildings, is in an increasingly gentrified neighborhood that also includes the courthouses and government buildings of downtown Brooklyn and their varied inhabitants.
Parents who pay St. Ann’s tuition, about $25,000 per year, said they were shocked that the federal government would deem it acceptable to monitor convicted criminals just steps away from students of grade-school age or older. Even more infuriating, they said, was that while the move has been in the works for months, the school was never officially informed
