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Brooklyn judges and lawyers go back to school for Read Across America

March 8, 2018 By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Members of the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association hosted a Read Across America event at P.S. 274 in Bushwick last Friday where a group of judges and attorneys read to a group of first and second graders. Pictured from left: Joy Thompson, Hon. Nancy Bannon, Tyear Middleton, Hon. Sylvia Hinds-Radix, Hon. Joanne Quinones, Deborah Johnson, Natoya McGhie and Derefim Neckles. Eagle photos by Rob Abruzzese

Members of the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association hosted a Read Across America event at P.S. 274 in Bushwick last Friday where a group of judges and attorneys read to a group of first and second graders. Pictured from left: Joy Thompson, Hon. Nancy Bannon, Tyear Middleton, Hon. Sylvia Hinds-Radix, Hon. Joanne Quinones, Deborah Johnson, Natoya McGhie and Derefim Neckles. Eagle photos by Rob Abruzzese

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Some of Brooklyn’s judges and attorneys went back to school last Friday to celebrate the national Read Across America event at P.S. 274 in Bushwick, where they read Dr. Seuss books to first and second graders.

“It’s so exciting and so rewarding to see their faces and how excited they are when they all line up and take the reader’s oath at the end,” said Hon. Joanne Quinones, who has organized the event during each of the last five years. “I know the children look forward to it all year long. They talk to their teachers about it. The younger ones can’t wait to get to the first grade so they can be a part of it.”

Quinones and a group of attorneys and judges from the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association (BWBA) have made it a tradition to go back to the judge’s former school in Bushwick. She said that she’s simply carrying on a tradition that she remembers from her childhood.

“I was thinking back to when I was in school and we had the REF program — Reading is Fundamental,” Quinones said. “That’s where you read a certain number of books you got one for free to start your own library. Now we come, we read with the kids and we give them gift bags with books so they can start their own libraries.”

This year’s group included Quinones as well as Joy Thompson, Hon. Nancy Bannon, Tyear Middleton, Hon. Sylvia Hinds-Radix, Deborah Johnson, Natoya McGhie and Derefim Neckles. The group spoke to the kids about themselves and their jobs and eventually broke off into smaller groups and read various Dr. Seuss books.

Afterward, BWBA members gave the students gift bags and cake, and have them read what’s called a “Reader’s Oath,” a promise that they will continue reading books on their own.

“It’s important for bar associations to come back into the community and expose people to the justice system, particularly young people,” Quinones said. “They need to see lawyers and judges not only on TV or if they are in court, but as real human people. They need to see that we’re just like them and they can aspire to be like us.”

Quinones picked P.S. 274 in Bushwick because that’s where she went to school and felt like she could make the biggest impact. In fact, she goes back there multiple times per year and even brings her staff for the annual career day in the spring.

“It’s important to do community events at every grade level,” said Quinones, who one day hopes to have one of these students ask her for an internship. “I do career day where I bring a court reporter, a court officer, a few different people so they can see the different the different jobs in the court.”

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