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School's letter for Kimani Gray
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Matt Willoughby, Principal
Madhu Narayanan, Assistant Principal
525 West 50th Street New York, NY 10019
P: (212) 586-0981
F: (212) 586-1731
www.uasdc.org
March 16, 2013
Parents, Students, Teachers, and Staff of the SDC Community,
Our entire school community pours our heart out to Kimani Gray’s mother and
family. We miss Kimani as we know they do in an unimaginably painful way. I was
Kimani’s principal for the last year and a half. In light of all the attention, I feel it is
important to share a little about the Kimani that we knew.
We believed in his potential from the day he entered our school. He traveled for over an
hour each day from East Flatbush to Midtown West to our little architectural themed high
school. The year and a half we had with Kimani allowed us to get to know his best self.
Kimani made great strides this year academically. He was taking an extra English class
after school; he was writing a dramatic dialogue in another English class; his group in
Design class was working on a project to design a school. Now they are working to
complete their project without him.
My hope is that as a community we can agree that the death of anyone so young is
tragic. Kimani should be remembered for all of who he was – an energetic, kind, playful,
independent young man who was trying to learn and grow one day at a time.
Our Social Worker and Guidance Counselors, as well as teachers and students trained in
Restorative Justice practices, have been available to the school community every day
since Monday. We will continue to create space and time for our school to grieve and
provide support to all who need it.
Thank you,
Matt Willoughby
Principal, Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction