Sat. 15 Sept. 5:00 pm (updated Sun. 16 Sept 1:15 pm): Parent Donovan Moore reports:

Front of the school Stuy bridge, looking North Stuy bridge, looking South Stuy entrance, interior

Stuy lobby Stuy lunchroom Stuy roof view

"I was able to enter Stuy on Saturday morning (Sept 15). The police at the intersection of the West Side Highway and Chambers Street were pretty strict about access to the school, but when they saw my PA Treasurer ID and another photo ID, they waved me in. They knew I was there to report on the building for the Stuy community and nothing more.

Although the official policy for the area inside the barricades is no press photos, after I said that 3,000 students and their families were eager to hear and see anything about their high school, the NYPD agreed and let me snap a few quick pictures. They were especially receptive to the idea that everyone wanted to know what the condition of the building was and what purpose it was being used for. I took as many as I thought they would allow, and then left them to get on with their work.

With my untrained eye, I can report that the building is in excellent shape. Although it’s dusty, I saw no structural damage. The lobby is being used as an information center and treatment area for minor injuries to anyone working at the site. The second floor has all kinds of prepared food for the relief workers. It also has a number of people giving back and neck massages to the weary. I was tempted, but held back. To my equally untrained nose, the air quality was absolutely normal.

The third floor looked to be a rest area – with cots in place of desks in many of the classrooms. The hallways are being used to store mountains of shoes, shirts, masks, aspirins, etc. All the other floors seemed to be exactly as they were left – no activity at all. The fifth floor cafeteria, as you can see, is being used for food and drink storage. There were more water bottles, sodas, and cookies and crackers stacked up there than you can believe. Many a Stuy student would find it heaven, I’m sure. To the right in the picture are many pallets of... dog food. Stuy is the official K-9 headquarters!

One of the officers suggested that I go up to the roof and take a shot of the activity in the surrounding area. I took him up on the suggestion and started climbing the stairs. I’m a parent, not a student. I was really feeling it by the time I got to the seventh floor. On the ninth floor, a volunteer saw me – wheezing now – and asked why I didn’t just take the elevator? The elevator! I didn’t think about the obvious – the elevators are all working perfectly. Had I known...

The bottom line is that the school is excellent shape – as are the streets around it. No thick layers of dust, just lots of trucks blocking the highway. It is being used for a good purpose – there are many exhausted hardhats that come in for rest and food. I know that we all want our school back badly, and from a strucural point of view, that seemed as if it could happen at any time. If the relief effort moves to another open facility, and the streets are cleared for access, we should be in good shape for returning to the building."