There were no metal detectors, Ryan noted, and nobody patted you down when you walked in the door. The City Council would later remove El Centro from the chopping block, and credited student testimony in particular. But in “Live to See the Day,” the sociologist Nikhil Goyal writes that Ryan questioned why El Centro had been threatened with closure in the first place. “Why did they have to beg the people in power for public schools that respected and helped their students?” Goyal asks. The safety net is in tatters, Goyal shows, and poverty is a tightrope walk with no room for error.

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Persons: Nikhil Goyal, Ryan Rivera, Ryan, “ Don’t, ”, ” Goyal Organizations: Philadelphia City Council, El Centro de Estudiantes, The, Council, El Centro Locations: Puerto Rican, Kensington, America, Philadelphia, El, tatters