In the days before a major winter storm is set to hit New York City, Mayor Eric Adams’ office has made the decision to use James Madison High School as a temporary shelter for 1,900 migrants located in tent shelters at Floyd Bennett Field. The controversy comes as students are being moved to remote learning as a result of the high school being used as an emergency temporary shelter.
The major storm, named Gerri according to the Weather Channel, is set to sweep across the United States and has already severely impacted Washington state, with the weather channel reporting, “Gerri has already pummeled the Northwest, knocking out power in parts of Oregon and Washington and prompting the first blizzard warning for mountain areas there since 2012.”
Republican Councilwoman Inna Vernikov said the school being used as a temporary shelter is “unacceptable,” and stated that schools were never intended to be used as shelters: “Our public schools are meant to be places of learning and growth for our children, and were never intended to be shelters or facilities for emergency housing,” despite the use of public schools as emergency shelters during storms historically being common practice across the United States.
The “rules for thee, but not for me” Vernikov recently attended a pro-Palestinian demonstration in opposition to the event, and was seen openly carrying a firearm. The charges were dropped as she claims the handgun was inoperable with the recoil spring assembly having been removed. A semiautomatic handgun firing pin may not reliably strike a cartridges primer without a recoil spring assembly being installed, but it is in fact possible to fire a handgun without a recoil spring.
