Inside the Logansport City Building, the City Council has a room full of people looking to the council for answers about recent Haitian immigration rumors. After former mayor Dave Kitchell walks up to the table, he speaks with eloquent sentences and enlightening information about Logansport’s past cultural problems. As he progresses through his speech, he reaches a climax.
“We got a heck of a great place to live in, and it can be even better,” Kitchell said. “But, we’re not there right now, and we’re not going to be there unless some things change. It has to change at the top. It’s time, I think, for the mayor to resign.”
The people looking for answers from the City Council applauded Kitchell and his call for Mayor Chris Martin to resign over not doing enough to integrate Haitians into the community in a coordinated effort.
Students of Logansport Community School Corporation are also looking for answers.
“I do fear for my safety in Logansport,” a Haitian freshman student, who wished to stay anonymous, said. “My family moved from Haiti to come here. We escaped the hate to come to more hate? While this country is amazing, I feel like its people don’t want me. I have done nothing wrong.”
Superintendent Michele Starkey says that the school corporation is doing fine, business as usual.
“We are not having trouble integrating Haitian students into our schools,” Starkey said. “Having immigrant students in our schools is not something new to us. We have processes and procedures in place in order to provide students with the educational plan that they need.”
One institution in the school corporation is the Century Career Center. The Career Center has around 1,100 students attending daily, and only 41 are Haitian. That is four percent of the Career Center’s student population.
“I believe Century is making good efforts and strides with our students,” Century Career Center director Robert Iles said. “The most popular CTE programs are Business and Health Science, with 11 and 10 students, respectively. However, students are represented across all of our program clusters in varying numbers. I believe this demonstrates our efforts to provide equitable program access to all students, and with quality CTE programs and instruction, provide the means to accessing high-wage, high-demand careers or enrollment in a postsecondary education program after graduation. This also comes with the familiar issues of addressing language barriers, cultural differences, and providing appropriate accommodations to help students reach their potential.”
The Logansport Intermediate School houses fifth and sixth-grade students. Principal Pete Lundy said that with a population of 657, only one percent fit the ethnic definition of Haitian Creole.
“We’ve had an equal number of students enroll this school year whose families are not from Haiti,” Lundy said. “I speak from the educational perspective of nine and 12-year-olds, but anyone who views a child wanting an education as ‘troubling’ is simply misguided. We’re talking about kids, kids who only want a stable place to live, learn, and contribute. They come to school, and they see humans their same age who share similar interests and interact based on similar age and developmental levels.”
According to the New York Post, residents of Logansport no longer feel safe in the community and their children aren’t getting the education they need. Logansport High School principal Matt Jones said that he has heard no concerns about students feeling unsafe.
“We have long been a welcoming school community, and we’re proud of our efforts to help students from diverse backgrounds feel at home here as part of Berry Nation,” Jones said. “As our community grows, particularly with our Haitian population, we continue to provide robust support systems, language resources, and cultural understanding. This is nothing new to LCSC and LHS. We have had a lot of diversity for many years. Our EL program is well-established, with fantastic educators and a point of pride. The program is a model for other schools around the state. We get multiple site visits annually to see our EL program in action. That says a lot.”
The Academy is also doing fine. Principal Gregory Grostefon explained that students can be sent to the Academy depending on their current situation. It offers education at a slower and sometimes more personal pace.
“The only real barrier is that there are very few LCSC employees who can speak Haitian Creole,” Grostefon said. “This complicates the enrollment process, but fortunately, The Academy employs an amazing EL teacher who is able to communicate with our Haitian students in a variety of ways.”
Grostefon said the school is by no means being overrun by immigrants.
“As an alternative school, we have a 15:1 student-to-teacher ratio for our in-person program, so being ‘overrun’ is not a possibility,” Grostefon said .“ We are currently at capacity in our in-person newcomer program.”
Students just want to be embraced by the school and community.
“My family chose to leave Haiti and come here,” the Haitian student said. “I think this place is great, but I get scared every now and then, and sometimes I feel alone. I have learned many things like English, and many other things I did not know in my country. I hope to keep learning.”
