First 'Ground Zero' scholl reopened

NEW YORK, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Students returned to Stuyvesant High School Tuesday, a school located in the shadow of where the Twin Towers once stood and the first of the "Ground Zero" schools to re-open following the Sept. 11 terror attack.

About 3,000 students were evacuated one month ago in the wake of the plane crashes and fires and collapse at the World Trade Center. School officials split the students' schedules so that Brooklyn Technical High School students went to school in the morning starting at 7:15 a.m. and Stuyvesant students went in the afternoon starting at 1:30 p.m.

While the school has been cleaned of dust and debris as a result of being blocks away from the World Trade Center, the students entered a "new world" of high security, a nearby disaster site where about 30,000 truckloads of rubble is removed each day and lingering smoke from Ground Zero.

New York City school Chancellor Harold Levy Stuyvesant principal Stanley Teitel greeted the students and faculty. Cleaning crews had been working around the clock to clean the school of dust and carpets were replaced, however, some parents were concerned that asbestos may have been mixed with the dust and may have contaminated the school.

Levy said that all tests had been completed and that the school "was safe" and that for the first week of the students return he would move his own office into the Chambers Street school.

"Even though we've done all kinds of testing, he will go there and literally breathe the air," said Karen Finney, Levy's spokeswoman. "He's saying, 'If I'm telling people it's okay, I should be willing to be there myself.'"

Levy and an assistant will work in the conference room, although Levy will leave the building on Tuesday to attend the 2001 National Education Summit in Palisades, N.Y. which will be attended by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, prominent business and education leaders and many of the nation's governors.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., escorted his daughter, Jessica, to Stuyvesant and said he was confident the building was safe. Additional testing of the air quality was made by the by the board and by the parents.

Meanwhile, students at P.S. 234 and P.S. 89 still won't be returning to their buildings any time soon, the board of education told United Press International. Students from P.S. 234 will move into the building that used to house St. Bernard's Catholic SChool on West 13th Street, Tuesday.

The New York Archdiocese closed that school last year and it has been vacant. P.S. 89 students may move to Junior High School 22 on the Lower East Side and P.S. 150 students will continue to attend P.S. 3. The High School for Finance and Leadership High School are also being cleaned and repaired. In total, seven schools were closed in Lower Manhattan as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center.

A 17-year-old senior at Port Richmond High School in Staten Island has been suspended and placed in a supervised center pending the outcome of his arrest for bomb threats he allegedly made to his school.

The arrest was made after the principal noticed a pattern of calls. According to the principal, Robert Graham, there were five bomb threats that were called in between 7:50 a.m. and 8:10 a.m. since September 20. Verizon traced calls fitting the pattern and verified that the bomb threats were coming from a pay phone two blocks from the school. New York City detectives staked out the telephone and the school's switchboard. The detectives caught the student red-handed, holding the receiver, according to Levy.

"Shortly after the Sept. 11 bombings, I said that false alarms and bomb threats will be treated severely," Levy said. "In this atmosphere, these acts are more than disruptive, they undermine our sense of security and anyone who disrupts our schools will suffer severe consequences."

According to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani:

-- 4,815 people have been registered as missing by the police.

-- 417 have been declared dead.

-- 366 bodies have been identified.

-- 4,392 have been listed as missing by relatives.

-- 1,369 have requested government assistance.

-- 1,382 death certificates have been requested.

-- 251,423 tons of material and rubble have been removed.

-- 31,725 truckloads of rubble have been removed.

-- 70 buildings have been damaged but are stable in need of repair and cleaning.

-- 12 buildings have been listed with major structural damage.

-- Bridge traffic into Manhattan has been down 12 percent to 75 percent.

-- $100 million a week has been estimated for cleanup.

--$40 billion has been estimated for the cost of the attacks.

-- $7 billion has been estimated for removal of World Trade Center rubble.

(Reporting by Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y.)