St. Gregory provides more than a home for refugees

This school has a special program to help refugee children learn to read English and fit into the regular school system in the future. DP

Kids fleeing world's squalor, needing special education find a home

BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA Staff Reporter

suntimes.com: The two Iraqi teens sit close in their classroom at St. Gregory the Great High School, whispering to each other as teacher Charles Pierce tries to teach them to read English.

"What is it?" Pierce finally asks, knowing he does not have the attention of the two refugees who arrived in the United States just three weeks ago.

"She wants to see your tattoo," 15-year-old Noor Ghanim Malek Alwaan says, giggling as she outs her sister Rand, 18, who punches her.

Pierce laughs, pushing up a shirt sleeve to show the body art that had distracted the girls.

"My God!" Rand blurts.

Pierce goes with the flow, and a discussion on tattoos ensues before they return to their studies.

The Iraqi girls are among nine refugee children -- relocated to Chicago through a United Nations program -- who have found a home at St. Gregory on the North Side. And more are on their way.

The tiny Archdiocese of Chicago school at 1677 W. Bryn Mawr is uniquely qualified to serve them. It offers the only four-year Catholic high school program in Chicago that accepts learning disabled students.

Most of the refugee students who go here qualify as learning disabled -- in need of special education services after arriving from squalid camps in war-torn countries like Burundi, the Congo and Sudan, where school was less important than survival.
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