Asbestos is forcing Philly students to switch buildings. 200 parents showed up to tell the district ‘no way.’

Sheila Johnson is the kind of parent who keeps close tabs on her daughter’s education, checking in with Dyllian’s teachers, making sure her grades are strong.

But when Johnson heard that the Philadelphia School District had ordered students and staff at Building 21 — the West Oak Lane High School where Dyllian is a junior — to relocate to Strawberry Mansion High, she knew there was only one decision that was right for her family.

“There’s no way she’s going,” Johnson said. “How dare they try to send our kids there? The district should have better options for us.”

On Sunday afternoon, Johnson and more than 200 other parents and students packed into a fourth-floor classroom in Strawberry Mansion High, most sending the same message to school officials: no way.

Damaged asbestos discovered during a routine inspection closed Building 21, on Limekiln Pike, on Wednesday; students learned virtually on Thursday and Friday. District officials informed parents Friday afternoon that the school would require more extensive remediation, and ordered staff and students to move to Strawberry Mansion High, about six miles away, beginning Monday, and for an indefinite stay.

The announcement riled families and staff, raising fears about safety, intra-neighborhood conflict, logistics, and parent voice.

The Sunday visit had been billed as a tour ahead of the Monday bell, but parents showed up ready to protest.

Holding back tears, Melvinia Hall told officials she had already lost one child to gun violence, and sending her senior to 31st Street and Ridge Avenue, one of the city’s many gun violence epicenters, was a non-starter.

”My son is not allowed in North Philly,” Hall said. “He will not be here Monday, he will not be here Tuesday. He is not coming to this school.”

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. hugged Hall and asked parents to raise their hands if they felt the same way. The room roared.

The precautions officials described for the Building 21 population’s temporary stay — the private entrances, the dedicated floor, the roaming security — did little to assuage concerns.

”If you have to do all ‘make them safe,’ why would we even consider letting them come here?” asked Alexis Lokey, whose daughter is a sophomore.

The district said shuttle buses would run from Building 21 on Monday.

But after that, most students would have to rely on multiple SEPTA lines to get to Mansion. Several parents said they were worried about their children’s safety on public transit and in the neighborhood.

Dania West, a nurse who commutes to Abington, said her arranging transit on short notice was next to impossible for her senior daughter.

”We’re working parents,” West said. “I can’t pay for an Uber every day.”

Parents pushed for virtual learning — but got little assurance. Watlington said that the district could not commit to it but that he was in conversations with Harrisburg about waiving the state cap on the number of allowed remote school days in a calendar year.

Parents demanded answers about whether their children’s attendance records would be tarnished if they refused to go to the temporary facility.

Watlington said the district would follow a process, but offered few specifics. Despite parents’ protests, Building 21 would reopen in Strawberry Mansion on Monday, Watlington said, for those who felt safe attending.

How many students will show remains to be seen.

After the Q&A onSunday, few people even looked inside the classrooms they had been invited to tour.

» READ MORE: Building 21 students must relocate because of asbestos remediation, and staff are ‘reeling’

Some parents wondered why Building 21, with 390 students, can’t relocate to district headquarters on North Broad Street, where Science Leadership Academy students learned when asbestos and construction issues temporarily closed the building they shared with Benjamin Franklin High School. (There’s no time to make that happen, parents were told.)

“I’m not happy, and I think it’s a Black thing. This would never happen in Montgomery County to white parents. They wouldn’t dare do this to the parents without talking to them,” said Johnson. Most of Building 21′s students are Black and economically disadvantaged.

Of the Building 21 parents interviewed by The Inquirer, most said they would not consider sending their child to Strawberry Mansion. Most cited the city’s ongoing gun violence crisis and mentioned the Feb. 23 shooting just blocks from the high school, which wounded seven, including a 2-year-old and five teenagers.

Karen Frager is a firm no on Mansion for her two children.

“I won’t send them there,” said Frager. “At this point, I would have to find other options.”

Frager’s older child is a senior, and she’s already paid for class dues, a prom ticket.

“I don’t want anything to divert her from graduating, but we didn’t sign up for this,” said Frager.

Lokey said she had reached out to school officials shortly after she heard they were sending Building 21 students to Mansion.

“I said, you might as well put me in truancy — I’m not sending my daughter to a neighborhood that she’s not familiar with,” said Lokey. “Is she going to have to fight her way out of school? There’s a chance she could get shot on the way home.”

Sabriyah Porter, Lokey’s daughter, said she and her classmates are “scared” of going to Strawberry Mansion.

“I strongly object to this decision,” said Porter. “Why can’t we just be virtual? In that neighborhood, a lot of stuff happens.”

District officials have said Mansion was chosen to minimize travel time for students and staff, because the building can accommodate all students at one site, and because it had amenities such as a separate cafeteria, restrooms, and entrance for Building 21. Part of Mansion has been designed as “swing space,” used before when other buildings needed to be temporarily closed for repairs.

Cassandra Small’s son is a senior at Building 21, and she’s reluctantly sending him to Mansion on Monday, she said. But she won’t put him on public transportation; she’s going to have to figure out a way to drive him.

“It’s not fair at all,” said Small. “No vote, no option, just a letter Friday afternoon saying, ‘Come get your Transpass.’”

The district’s assurances were no balm, she said.

“They’re going to be targets,” Small said.