The Village Voice has extensive September 11 coverage online, and one of the stories is about a movement from Stuyvesant High School students demanding health insurance after being exposed to the toxic dust when they returned to their school on Chambers Street. Lila Nordstrom, a senior during the 2001-2002 school year, sent a letter to officials:
"As victims of 9/11, and, especially, victims of the 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."
She urged city and federal lawmakers to back a bill that would give Stuyvesant students the same coverage some first responders already receive: medical monitoring and, for those who develop pollution-related diseases, treatment.
While it's pretty doubtful that Stuy students will get health insurance, as they join the thousands affected there, what's interesting is that when the Stuyvesant High School newspaper The Spectator printed its post September 11 issue (which was then distributed by the NY Times), there was an article called "An 'A' for Air Quality."
You can read the issue here in PDF form, and the air quality issue is on page 8. And the Daily News has made Ground Zero air quality and first responders a pet issue.
