From Serial and the New York Times, this is Nice White Parents, episode 3.

I. S-293 opened in 1968.

Renee Flowers was part of the first generation of students to walk in the door.

And you're talking about the building on Court Street.

I went to school there.

It was nice.

And it was brand new, you know, it was nice.

Were you nervous about going? Ah, because all your friends.

You know all your friends when the neighborhood was there.

The Gowanus neighborhood, where Renee grew up, and still lives,

the housing projects three blocks away from the school.

Renee went to IS-293, graduated, and she kept going back to the building,

to play handball, to vote, to attend graduations.

Renee coaches the neighborhood drill team

and they'd perform at the school.

For years, she'd regularly go watch the basketball tournament.

Renee is in her 60s.

She just retired from the post office. The school has been a

fixture for most of her life. She knows every part of the building.

Actually if you're going on the Baltic Street entrance, the school safety, sitting, then when you walk

actually into the building, the auditorium is right to your right.

As we're talking, she closes her eyes. She can see it. Walk up a little more and turn left and another left the gym is right there.

...