CITYWIDE

COURT UPHOLDS LEAD PAINT LAW

A State Supreme Court judge dismissed a challenge by landlords and developers yesterday to a sweeping lead paint law that went into effect in the city at the beginning of last month. The law, which was passed in February when the City Council overrode a mayoral veto, requires landlords of pre-1960 apartment buildings to remove peeling paint from all units that are home to children under age 7 before 2007. The challenge, which was filed by several developers and management companies, claimed that the city did not comply with state environmental rules and that enacting the law was beyond the city’s authority. Developers and landlords have long argued that the law would require them to take steps that would be prohibitively expensive. Mayor Bloomberg has argued that the law will cost the city millions of dollars and will reduce the supply of affordable housing. He has also said it is not an effective way to combat the lead paint problem. Yesterday the City Council hailed the ruling as a victory and said the real winners were the “tens of thousands of children our law will protect from the irreparable damaged of lead paint poisoning.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BROOKLYN

PARENTS, STUDENTS WANT NEW LEADERSHIP AT HIGH SCHOOL

Hundreds of chanting, sign-waving parents, students, neighbors, and politicians rallied outside of Lafayette High School yesterday, calling for a major administrative shakeup at the Bensonhurst school.

“What was once a premier high school has become a virtual snake pit,” state Senator Carl Kruger said. He said the community needs “leadership” to fix up instruction at the school and get rid of the pervasive violence. Speaking over chants of “Fire Siegel,” he said the principal of three years, Alan Siegel, isn’t capable of fixing the school’s problems.

The protesters, who gathered for Mr. Siegel’s first day back after summer vacation, said there were a number of problems at Lafayette. Rampant violence, which often goes unpunished, topped the list.

Violence against Asian students spiralled out of control last year, prompting an investigation by the Department of Justice.

In June, the department reached a settlement with the city and the school after charging that “pervasive” violence against Asian pupils had been ignored.

In a statement, the Department of Education praised the principal and said he was responsible for implementing new programs to encourage student unity and cooperation.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BRONX

SEPARATED TWINS LEAVE HOSPITAL

With only the names scrawled on their bandages to tell them apart, Carl and Clarence Aguirre, the Filipino twins who were surgically separated less than a month ago, left Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx yesterday to the cheers of a jubilant crowd of hospital workers and passers-by.

“It’s so amazing to see them get to this point that I can’t see them any other way,” said Dr. David Staffenberg, chief of pediatric plastic surgery at Montefiore.

The 2-year-olds were joined at the top of the head before being separated on August 4 in a 17-hour operation.

Loaded onto separate ambulances yesterday with police escorts in tow, the twins headed to Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, where they will undergo physical, occupational, and speech therapy for at least a year, said Dr. Robert Marion, the twins’ pediatrician.

He said doctors have found no evidence of neurological damage in either twin as a result of the surgery, making the separation the first of its kind in which neither twin suffered brain damage.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun