Window collapse raises safety concerns at Dyker Heights school

Cave-in took place in crowded classroom

April 21, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

A view from inside the classroom where a window collapsed at Dyker Heights Intermediate School Monday morning. Photo courtesy Councilmember Vincent Gentile’s office

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The collapse of a large window in a classroom at Dyker Heights Intermediate School on Monday is raising alarms over school safety.

Students at the school were still in shock over the incident a day later. The accident took place shortly before noon on April 20 when a window in a fourth floor classroom at the school, at 8010 12th Ave., suddenly collapsed and landed inside the classroom during a science lesson, according to officials.

The classroom was filled with students but no one was injured in the incident, officials at the New York City Department of Education (DOE) said. The teacher immediately got students out of the room.

“One minute the teacher was talking about science and then me and my friends turned around and we heard a crack in the wall and we turned back around and we heard ‘boom.’ It fell right there, the whole wall,” seventh grader Leonardo Mancini told Eyewitness News.

The Fire Department was called to the school. Officials from the DOE and the Department of Buildings (DOB), as well as the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), all arrived at the scene to investigate the situation.

The cause of the accident is still unknown. The school building has been undergoing renovation for about a year. The heavy rains and high winds that hit New York City on Monday morning might have played a role in the incident by weakening the wall supporting the windows, a source told the Brooklyn Eagle.

The school building remained closed on Tuesday, according to the DOE. Officials from DOE are working to assess the situation and make the necessary repairs. Dyker Heights I.S. Students were sent to nearby schools for the day.

Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny (D-Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Coney Island) expressed relief that there were no injuries in the incident.

“Happy to report there were no injuries sustained during the incident that occurred today at P.S. 201 when a window fell into a 4th floor occupied classroom,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

But Councilmember Vincent Gentile (D-Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Bensonhurst) charged that the accident could have been prevented. Gentile said students, parents and teachers have complained of creaky and cracking walls, substandard electrical wiring, leaking light fixtures, the smell of mold and a worn-out exterior façade during the lengthy renovation project.

“My office has received numerous complaints about I.S. 201 over the years, especially since the renovation construction began last year,” Gentile said, referring to Dyker Heights Intermediate School by its school number.

In response to the window collapse, Gentile, who is chairman of the council’s Oversight and Investigations Committee, called on the Dept. of Buildings to immediately inspect all New York City public schools that are currently undergoing renovation.

“Children attend our public schools to receive a world-class education in a nurturing and above all – safe – environment. They should never be subject to danger of any shape or form. What happened today was very, very alarming and, in my estimation, completely preventable,” Gentile said on Monday.