Posts tagged "fire alarm"
UFT raises safety questions about space shuffle at ASL school
A union report citing safety hazards at a Manhattan school for deaf students is helping fuel opposition to the city’s plan to add an additional middle school to the building.
Parents, students and teachers at the American Sign Language and English Lower and Secondary Schools and the Clinton School for Artists and Writers have spent months protesting the city’s plan to move Clinton into the ASL schools’ building. The results of a recent safety inspection by union officials that cited potential problems with evacuating the building in case of fire have prompted more outcry.
“It is unconsionable that DOE is considering adding 300 more people to a building with such life-and-death insufficiencies for its current population,” Susan Kramer, a Clinton School parent, said in an email. “I will not endanger my child at this building.” (more…)
fire alarm
December 9, 2009
UFT reports warn crowding at Francis Lewis HS is a safety hazard
Stories of Francis Lewis High School’s crowded hallways have made their way into more than one city newspaper, but until recently no one has asked the question: what would happen if someone yelled “fire” in a crowded stairwell?
Concerned that the Queens school’s choked hallways — there are over 4,000 students in a building designed for 2,400 — would trap students and teachers during an evacuation, the school’s chapter leader, Arthur Goldstein, asked officials at the United Federation of Teachers to do a safety inspection. A report from the inspectors warns that in the event of an emergency, the crowds in Francis Lewis would have a difficult time leaving the building.
One report, written by UFT Environmental Safety representative Sandra Dunne Yules, states:
The crowded hallways exceed the safe limits and impact emergency egress capacity of the school. The building was designed for far fewer occupants and this condition creates a serious emergency egress hazard. This school was not designed to safely handle the evacuation of the number of current occupants. This is a serious life safety issue and a fire code and building code violation. (more…)
Feb. 10: You’re invited!
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