[Editor’s update: In a subsequent article, The Korean Times reported that the

[Editor’s update: In a subsequent article, The Korean Times reported that the school’s principal, Paul Didio, said that it had never been the intention to create an Asian-only classroom. The Korean Times reported that an ESL test was administered to about 100 students, and that some students were reassigned to different classes following the complaints by parents and the original report in The Korea Times. However, the paper noted that parents are not entirely mollified. One parent said: “Other nearby schools are placing all the students in standard classes regardless of their language skill level, and providing an additional one-hour-ESL class if it is needed.”]

A school in Queens is being accused of having segregated some Korean and Chinese students in a kindergarten class, Jiha Ham and Tae Hong write in a story that appears in the English language version of The Korea Times.

At P.S. 159, kindergarten students are divided into five classes, and in classroom 207, all 26 students are of Asian descent, with 19 Chinese students and 7 Korean students.

Next door, classroom 209 has a roll call consisting of Asian, Hispanic, black and white students, as does the rest of the three remaining classes, a group of Korean parents said Monday.

“It’s impossible to accept, with common sense, that an entire classroom consists of just Korean and Chinese students,” said one of the parents, identified only as Lee. “Even if they say that they gathered all the kids who aren’t very fluent in English, I don’t understand why there aren’t any kids of another race.”

The Korea Times article noted that the Department of Education said that it was a “coincidence” that the one class consists only of Chinese and Korean students, and that it had not been done on purpose. For more on what parents of the children in room 207 had to say, go to The Korea Times. via www.voicesofny.org