Helen Chandler
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helenchandler.bsky.social
Helen Chandler
@helenchandler.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.2K following 35 posts
Writer, Irish, work in The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine, etc. helenchandler.co
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Reposted by Helen Chandler
marisakabas.bsky.social
Sackets Harbor, NY is so small that there’s one pre k-12 school with 475 students. Three of those students were disappeared by ICE.

Here is a statement published today by school principal Jaime Cook:
< Jaime Montana Cook is at Sackets Harbor Central School. 5h • Message from the Sackets Harbor Principal As the principal of these students, I need to speak plainly. Our three students who were taken by ICE were doing everything right. They had declared themselves to immigration judges, attended court on their assigned dates, and were following the legal process. They are not criminals. They have no ties to any criminal activity. They are loved in their classrooms. Their family has worked at the nearby "Old McDonald's" petting zoo and dairy farm for 15 years. They lived in a house on the same road as a home ICE had a warrant for. The fact that ICE went door to door is unfathomable. The fact that our students were handcuffed and put into the same van as the alleged criminal from down the street is unconscionable. When I think of my third grader's experience, my stomach twists and it is hard to breathe. We are in shock-and it is that shared shock that has unified our community in the call for our students' release. We are in direct communication with our students. Let me be clear: they are not "being medically evaluated." They are not being "questioned as potential victims." Calling a detention center by another name does not change what it is. We deserve better than spin and misinformation. My teachers and my students are already hurting. Please, think about how long every hour feels for a third grader in a detention center. The wait had already been too long a week ago. I have no other agenda. Please release my students and their mother back to our community. Jaime Cook Prek-12 Principal Sackets Harbor, NY
April 5, 2025 at 5:00 PM
helenchandler.bsky.social
(the snow and Charlottesville schools closing at the mere suggestion of it.)
February 7, 2025 at 11:53 PM
helenchandler.bsky.social
Same, it really speaks to my anxieties about moving bits around - working in a 'plan' document as opposed to the manuscript makes so much sense.
December 11, 2024 at 9:25 PM
helenchandler.bsky.social
Circling back here to say I actually loved this book. I'm working on a second draft using the planning and retyping method now!
December 11, 2024 at 9:21 PM