A 50-foot-tall tree in a private lot next to the Epiphany School, 234 E. 22nd St. between Second and Third Aves., fell into the schoolyard full of children and parents on Monday afternoon, June 9. An emergency medical team treated about a dozen first- and second-graders for minor cuts and bruises and took a parent volunteer, identified as Monica Tompos in a New York Post article, to Bellevue Hospital with head and neck injuries.
The tree buckled a sidewalk and fell over a wall and a fence that separated it from the schoolyard.
Joseph Zwilling, spokesperson for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, said the adults in the schoolyard heard a cracking sound and moved quickly to get the children out of harm’s way.
