Taylor Elementary students displaced another day

PHILADELPHIA - April 30, 2012

All students will report once again to Roberto Clemente Middle School.

As of Monday evening, the sidewalk remained closed on Randolph Street, after the bricks above some of the school's third story windows came crashing down early yesterday.

Neighbors across from Taylor Elementary got a rude awakening just before 9:00 a.m. Sunday.

Maria Rusell showed Action News dents and pieces of mortar that remained on her husband's car after bricks came tumbling down from above the school's third-floor windows.

This morning, more than 500 kindergarten through fifth graders who usually attend Taylor were bused over to Clemente.

Though, some parents, including fourth grader Maria Calzadilla's mother, were reluctant to have their young children in the same building with teenagers. She stayed home.

While Taylor's students and teachers made do in borrowed space at Clemente, engineers from the Philadelphia School District and inspectors from L & I rode up in a crane to get a closer look at the area from which the bricks had fallen.

"What we know now is that water had been going into the wall and pushing the bricks out," Philadelphia School District spokesman Fernando Gallard said.

Again, Taylor students will report to Roberto Clemente for classes on Tuesday as they did today.

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