A Syracuse University professor and his students spent the summer trying to protect fire alarm boxes in New York City.

Michael Schwartz, a law professor and director of the Disability Rights Clinic, along with 10 SU law students who were in Schwartz’s clinic, fought legislation that would have allowed the city to remove 15,000 fire alarm boxes from its streets.

Schwartz said an oral argument between his team and lawyers representing the city happened June 3. By Aug. 15, the court had ruled against the city, denying its motion to throw out the injunction.

The red emergency boxes are placed all over New York City. Each box has one blue button, which can be pressed to alert the police, and one red button, which can be pressed to alert a local fire department, Schwartz said. The alert goes to a central location, where authorities can immediately identify the location of where the alarm was triggered, Schwartz said.

The boxes, he said, largely affect the deaf community. Schwartz, who is deaf himself, said it is an easy, convenient way for those who are deaf or hearing impaired to report an emergency.

‘They allow people to report emergencies from the street without the use of a phone,’ Schwartz said through an American Sign Language interpreter.

The case, which Schwartz said originated in 1995, arose when the city attempted to get rid of the boxes. Schwartz was on the legal team that fought against the city. Schwartz said the case had come to an end in 2000, when the city agreed to keep the boxes. Last year, Schwartz said, the city moved to remove the injunction that prevented them from getting rid of the boxes.

‘Last year, I got a phone call from the same team saying that the city wanted to ask the court to throw out the injunction that prevented them from removing 15,000 fire alarm boxes,’ Schwartz said. ‘So the lawyers called me to let me know that the case was coming back to life. They asked me to join them, and I did.’

The city wanted to remove the boxes because they are expensive to repair, Schwartz said. Authorities also get a lot of false alarms reported through the use of the boxes, he said.

Renee Yaworsky, a third-year law student at SU, was one of the students in Schwartz’s clinic who helped work on the case.

Yaworsky said she was honored to be a part of such a high-profile case. She said she was able to learn and take a lot out of the experience.

‘After I learned the facts and details of the case, I was happy to be involved in any capacity because it was a cause I believed was important and could really affect numerous people living in New York City,’ Yaworsky said.

Schwartz said he is very happy with the verdict.

‘This provides the deaf and hard of hearing the opportunity to report emergencies from the street,’ he said.

snbouvia@syr.edu 

Published on September 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephanie: snbouvia@syr.edu | @snbouvia