Clearing a park encampment beside a school
- Kind
- Policy and health systems
Prompt
A city's shelters are full, and a tent encampment of about forty people has grown in a park next to an elementary school. Parents want the city to clear it, and advocates say clearing it will only push people somewhere less safe and harder to reach. What should the city do?
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After you practice: what this question tests and how to approach it
What this question tests
- Ethical reasoning
- Empathy and compassion
- Critical thinking
How to approach this question
This panel interview question tests whether you can balance the safety concerns of parents at an elementary school against the needs and rights of forty people with nowhere else to go. Name everyone involved fairly: the people in the encampment, the children and parents, neighbors, outreach workers and the city. Lay out the case on each side, giving weight to parents' concerns about safety and sanitation and to advocates' warning that clearing the camp without housing scatters people out of reach. Weigh options such as relocating people with a guaranteed place to go, adding temporary shelter, setting clear rules near the school, or increasing outreach. Finish with a clear recommendation that names its tradeoffs and says who should be consulted.
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