The Daily News obtained several years of records, via a Freedom of Information Law request, from the nurse logs at PS 51–the Bedford Park school that was moved to a new location this fall after testing found hazardous levels of a chemical toxin called trichloroethylene (TCE) in its former building, an old lighting factory. Longtime exposure to TCE has been linked to kidney and liver problems, damage to the central nervous system, as well as dizziness, headaches, nausea and blurred vision. In our Norwood News cover story  few months back, concerned parents discussed what they thought was an excessive number of sick children who’d attended the school.

The records only date back to 2005 (the school opened in 1991), and it’s hard to say whether or not the ailments experienced by Bronx New School students are abnormal without comparing them to the nurse logs of  similarly-sized schools over  a similar time span. But here’s what the documents revealed, according to Daily News’ columnist Juan Gonzalez: “Over the period, there were more than 300 reports of children vomiting in school, including 16 in the single month of May 2007; more than 500 reported headaches; 700 stomachaches, and 22 seizures.”

In other school news–
The Dept. of Education released its yearly school report cards last week, and poor scores have landed several Bronx schools on the city’s latest list of possible closures. NY1 has the full list here, and it includes nearly all of the borough’s remaining large schools, many of which have been in troubled waters for the last several years: Grace Dodge, Lehman, and Samuel Gompers. Locally, DeWitt Clinton managed to escape closure, despite the fact that the school got an “F” on its latest progress report. 

 

a few more local stories–
A Fordham-area man died yesterday of injuries sustained when he was beaten and robbed over the weekend. Bimal Chanda, 59, was jumped by two men as he was walking back to his apartment on Saturday; police are still looking for the suspects.

Bob Kappstatter has all the latest local political gossip in his column yesterday.