Thursday, December 14, 2006

NY Times Op-Ed

Check out the NY Times op-ed "A Fair Deal for 9/11's Injured" in today's paper. It's interesting and can be found
here.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Rescue Workers with Cancer

Check out this article about 9/11 rescue workers that have been diagnosed with cancer from the Village Voice. It's written by the same reporter that wrote the story about us "Some Kids Left Behind" (Which incidentally, you can still find here.
We've made some real progress since then!)

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Fox 5 Segment

Last night (Nov. 21st at 10pm) Fox 5 aired a segment that we taped a couple of weeks ago called "The Silent Toll: Sick Students." I was away for the last two weeks and just got back so I missed the airing and wasn't able to warn everybody, but the segment can still be watched online here. Check it out!

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

SUNY Binghamton Article

A reporter for the SUNY Binghamtom school paper "Pipe Dream" just wrote an article about health concerns among Stuyvesant graduates. The article wrongly states that we have been working to get health insurance only for the class of '02, but it is otherwise a good article. Check it out here.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

EPA Cover Up

Check out this article from www.rawstory.com about the EPA cover up of the dangerous air quality in lower Manhattan after 9/11.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Documentary Project

Danielle Turchiano (class of '02) is working on a documentary about students and 9/11 and asked me to post this:

To Stuyvesant High School Students and Faculty Classes 2002-2005:

I know there have been many, many documentaries made about September 11th, the victims, the events, and the impact they have had on our lives, our city, and our world, but for awhile now I've been kicking around the idea of adding one more to that list: one that tells the stories through the eyes of the youth on that day, the eyes of Stuyvesant High School. Our stories are just as emotional and just as worthy of being told of any of them. Right now, I am in the research and development stages of the documentary, and I need your help to find the focal point of the narrative:
originally I wanted to focus on our stories, but more and more lately the health issue creeps up in conversations, and I will be including that in the discussion, although I don't yet know to what capacity. I have written a brief survey for students and faculty to partake in if so interested, and it can be obtained by emailing me at danielletbd@yahoo.com. Any and all feedback/suggestions are welcome!

Thank you!
Sincerely,
Danielle Turchiano
Stuyvesant High School, Class of 2002
Producer/Director, TBD Productions
danielletbd@yahoo.com

Monday, October 16, 2006

Sunday, October 15, 2006

NY 1 Story

NY 1 also covered the letter from Sen. Clinton to the EPA. Find the news report here.

Mention in LA Times Article

Check out this article from the LA Times, which mentions us. The article discusses the plight of the all but forgotten workers that cleaned up buildings in lower Manhattan after the attacks and are now getting sick and in need of care.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Sen. Clinton On Board/Daily News Coverage

Sen. Clinton has joined us in our fight and just recently sent a letter to the regional administrator of the EPA concerning the health and air quality issues surrounding Stuyvesant students!

The Daily News has covered the issue and the article can be found here!

Leave a comment with your e-mail if you are interested in reading the letter (my lack of web design skills is preventing me from posting it since it's a .pdf file...instructions on how to do that could also be left in the comment box if anybody would like to tell me).
-Lila

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

NY Sun

Check out the NY Sun article that was just added under links. Scary stuff, but Amit is mentioned and we helped get this issue out!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Press Conference Coverage

The press conference was a great success and thanks to all who came! It was nice to see so many people show up in support. You know things are moving along well when a politician organizes a press conference around your issue!
We were covered by NY 1, and Channels 5, 9, and 11 on the 10 o'clock news! We also had articles in all the major local papers, so here are the links:
Daily News
New York Times
New York Post
New York Sun
New York Metro
AM New York
I've also heard rumblings of radio coverage.
Let's keep this momentum going!
Thanks again to everybody who came!

Friday, September 29, 2006

PRESS CONFERENCE TIME CHANGE

Please be advised that the press conference this Sunday has changed times from 12 noon to 1 pm. Hope to see you there! The location is still in front of Stuyvesant.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Metro Article (Take 2)

Check out the article about Amit in today's NY Metro. The petiton is metioned! You can find it here.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

PRESS CONFERENCE SUNDAY

Scott Stringer's office is organizing a press conference to address the issue of 9/11 related health needs in lower Manhattan, especially among those of us that were students. If you are in the city this Sunday, October 1st, and are a former lower Manhattan student, please consider coming to show your support! They will be thanking the mayor for his $16 million in funding, and calling for federal funding as well!

Time: 12 Noon
Place: In front of Stuyvesant HS, 345 Chambers St.
Hope to see you there!!!

Monday, September 25, 2006

WBAI Radio Piece

A piece related to the Post article will be airing on tonight's news at 6 and 11 pm on radio station WBAI (99.5 FM). Check it out!

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Television News

Check Amit and I out tonight on Channels 5, 9, and 11 at 10pm (yes, all three are running at the same time)!

New York Post Article!

Check out today's article in the Post, which mentions us!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Village Voice Article

An editorial shift while the Village Voice article was being written caused it to be published online instead of in hard copy, although the voice will still be publishing a story about health effects and 9/11, just a more expansive one.
In any case, here is the link to the article.

Friday, March 31, 2006

Open Letter

Stuyvesant Alumni:
If you were at Stuyvesant during 9/11, please consider signing this letter! Although hard copies have already been sent out, we can keep adding signatures for future mailings. Leave your name and class year (and e-mail!) in a comment box or e-mail them to StuyHealth@gmail.com, and you will be added to the list. From now on I will no longer publish the comments that are simply signees, I will just add them to the petition and mailing list. The first round of mailings went to:
Rep. Jerrold Nadler
Sen. Hillary Clinton
Sen. Charles Schumer
Rep. Anthony Weiner
Speaker of the City Council Christine Quinn
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer
Former 9/11 Commission Member (and Stuy Alumnus) Richard Ben-Veniste
Bill Clinton
The New York Times
The Daily News

Open Letter:

To Whom it May Concern,

On February 2nd a federal judge found the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency Christie Whitman culpable enough to stand trial for putting the public in danger by making misleading statements about the air quality in lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11th, thus upholding a class action suit filed on behalf of residents and school children in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. Students at Stuyvesant High School, were among the many that were directly affected by the misinformation released by the Environmental Protection Agency under her leadership. We had the additional misfortune of being the first students called back to lower Manhattan after the attacks. At the time, fires were still burning at the World Trade Center site and debris was being taken to the landfill by way of a barge located directly outside our school building. We had several fire drills in our first days back that informed us of our new emergency route, which led us even closer to the burning debris at the site of the destruction (our old emergency route, up West St., was being blocked by the barge and a large crane). Although the Board of Education continually assured us of the safety of the air at our school, the smell of smoke was strong every afternoon for months after the attacks. Parents were told at the first PTA meeting after our return, that nobody, even those of us with respiratory health concerns, would be able to leave Stuyvesant for the duration of the clean-up process; we had to stay or would forfeit our spots at the school. Given the effort most of us put into getting into Stuyvesant, leaving was not an option. Eventually, we learned that the school building had not been cleaned as thoroughly as promised.

Most of the Stuyvesant students that were seniors in the year of the attacks are graduating from college this year. We are entering a world in which jobs are scarce, starting pay is low, and public benefits are dwindling. As you know, health coverage is expensive and difficult to obtain, especially on a starting salary. More Americans go bankrupt as a result of health expenses than over any other issue, and the current Administration is making very little effort to make obtaining health coverage any easier or more affordable. Additionally, as college students and soon-to-be graduates, many of us have already accrued large amounts of debt to pay for our educations.

As the canaries used to promote the revitalization of downtown Manhattan after 9/11, we were given no choice but to accept the health risks that went along with attending school in lower Manhattan in the 2001/2002 school year. Ms. Whitman’s assurances were a very relevant part of why we were permitted to return to our building, which had been used as the command center for the rescue effort at Ground Zero, only a month after September 11th, on October 9th, 2001. Our administrators and teachers already have health coverage. As students, we don’t. As victims of 9/11, and, especially, victims of Ms. Whitman’s misinformation campaign, we served as "draftees" in the media campaign to reassure the American people. At the least, in recognition of the risks we undertook simply by attending school, we should be guaranteed health insurance for the rest of our lives. It is imperative that you support us in this effort. We request your help in meeting this goal, ideally by supporting the introduction of legislation towards this end.
Sincerely,
Lila Nordstrom
(+ 240 Stuyvesant alumni and counting)