Migrants are moving into a Western Mass. town, and straining its schools. Now the welcome mat is fraying.
The school day was not yet 30 minutes old, but on the first floor of the district’s central office, in the small, overstuffed cubicle of social worker Jackie Willemain, the problems were already piling up.
A first-grader from Haiti hadn’t shown up at school, again. Memorial, one of the elementaries, needed supplies — wipes, underwear, pants — for students who were homeless. Abigaille, a 13-year-old from Haiti, was suffering headaches from squinting to see the board, but was afraid to tell her mom because she feared glasses would be too expensive.
Willemain’s eyes flashed frustration; of course, the child was eligible for free glasses. She turned to the young man standing by her desk, Morad Majjad, the district’s multilingual family liaison. “The case worker should have taken care of this,” she said, as much to him as to the universe.
