4 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 April 3–9, 2020
Keep your prostate.
Affordable Family Dentistry
in modern pleasant surroundings
State of the Art Sterilization (autoclave)
Emergencies treated promptly
Special care for children & anxious patients
WE NOW ACCEPT OXFORD
Kill the cancer.
Maimonides is the FIRST and ONLY medical center on the East
Coast to offer the next generation focal HIFU treatment.
The expert physicians at Maimonides are leading the way with the most advanced technology
on the East Coast. Focal HIFU ( High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound) offers the most precise,
image-guided treatment __ down to the millimeter __ and results in fewer side effects by
selectively destroying the cancerous cells within the prostate while leaving the healthy areas
intact and functional. Now available only at Maimonides.
The new Maimonides Prostate Center is the only full service
prostate center in Brooklyn and is led by David Silver, MD, Chief,
Division of Urology Director, Prostate Center. The Center is at the
forefront of minimally invasive, multidisciplinary surgical and medical
care, offering men facing a diagnosis of prostate cancer the most
advanced technology and customized treatment options available.
To speak with a prostate center specialist,
call 888.MMC.DOCS or visit ProstateCenterNY.org
Brooklyn’s Only Prostate Center
Your life. To be continued.
NEW YORKERS:
SCHOOLS...
STAY HOME TO STOP THE SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS
New Yorkers working together and staying home can slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19)
in New York City. When you go out for essential needs, work or to get fresh air, keep distance
between yourself and others and take the following precautions.
Text COVID to 692-692 for real-time updates or visit nyc.gov/coronavirus.
Call 311 to report harassment or discrimination. Call 888-NYC-WELL, text "WELL" to 65173
or chat online at nyc.gov/nycwell to connect with a counselor.
*Messages and data rates may apply. Check your wireless provider plan for details.
Bill de Blasio
Mayor
Oxiris Barbot, MD
Commissioner
PROTECT YOURSELF
AND OTHERS
• Keep at least 6 feet between
yourself and others.
• Wash your hands with soap
and water often.
• Cover your nose and mouth
with a tissue or sleeve when
sneezing or coughing.
• Do not touch your face with
unwashed hands.
• Monitor your health more
closely than usual for cold or
flu symptoms.
IF YOU ARE SICK
• Stay home.
• If you have a cough,
shortness of breath, fever,
sore throat and do not feel
better after 3-4 days,
consult with your doctor.
• If you need help getting
medical care, call 311.
• NYC will provide care
regardless of immigration
status or ability to pay.
REDUCE
OVERCROWDING
• Stay home.
• Telecommute if possible.
If you do go out:
• Stagger work hours away
from peak travel times.
• Walk or bike.
• Do not gather in crowds.
PROTECT THE
MOST VULNERABLE
• Stay home if you have
lung disease, heart disease,
diabetes, cancer or a
weakened immune system.
• Stay home and call, video
chat or text with family or
friends who have one of
these conditions.
• Tooth Bleaching (whitening)
• Cosmetic Dentistry, Porcelain Facings & Inlays,
Bonding Crowns & Bridges (Capping)
• Painless, Non-Surgical Gum Treatment
• Root Canal • Extractions • Dentures • Cleanings
• Implant Dentistry • Fillings (tooth colored)
• Stereo headphones • Analgesia (Sweet air)
Dr. Jeffrey M. Kramer
544 Court Street, Carroll Gardens
624-5554 624-7055
Convenient Office Hours & Ample Parking
and insurance plans accommodated
he said. “The response from
the kids has been great, they
want to learn and want to do
lessons.”
But while the system is
working as well as could
be expected, it’s not without
flaws.
Caggiano worried that the
prolonged out-of-classroom
experience, which de Blasio
predicted would last through
the end of the school year,
would cause some students
to get behind on their formative
schooling.
“I am actually worried
that a lot of students will fall
through the cracks, and they
won’t get the education they
deserve and they will be very,
very behind,” Caggiano said,
“because they will not be doing
all the work, and not understanding
a lot of it.”
Some 300,000 students
in the New York City public
school system do not have an
internet connection at home
or a device to access the internet,
Schools Chancellor Richard
Carranza said on March 23,
and even though the Department
of Education has issued
over 175,000 devices — including
both iPads and laptops —
in an effort to close the gap,
some students were still waiting
to receive their devices days
into the transition.
“We did sign up for a remote
device and we have not
gotten it. On Monday, they
told us they are still waiting on
the devices,” said Shaquana
Boykin, who is the guardian
of a student enrolled at Brooklyn
Community Arts and Media
High School in Bedford-
Stuyvesant.
Without the device, the
high-schooler has had to
switch between her smartphone
and Boykin’s laptop —
which she also needs for work,
but teachers offered an improvised
option, Boykin said.
“If I am using the laptop,
and she can’t do the multiplechoice,
her teacher said she
could screenshot on her phone
and email it to them and they
could grade it that way,” she
told Brooklyn Paper.
Education advocates lamented
that the current crisis
further emphasizes a need
for educational resources for
lower-equity students, who
may regularly lack things
like an internet connection,
a laptop, or even adult supervision.
“Unfortunately, the pandemic
reveals new challenges,
but to existing problems.
There is a realization
that not all children have the
same tools available to them,”
said Shelley Pasnik, the director
of the Center for Children
and Technology in Manhattan.
Missing classroom time or
being unable to complete assignments
will only further
the inequality of education for
these vulnerable students.
“Every day of education
matters. We know that students
who are homeless, and
students in foster care have
worse educational outcomes
than their peers — they are
already less likely to be proficient
in reading, and more
likely to drop out of school,”
said Randi Levine, a policy director
with Advocates for Children
of New York. “So, we do
worry that any further gap in
their education is going to set
them further behind.”
Pasnik suggested reaching
students through more accessible
and free networks —
such as broadcasting teachers
on a public media channel,
or having students tune in to
a lesson on the radio — which
would provide a helpful means
of information delivery, and
allow teachers to be sources
of comfort for students.
“It is also about the relationship
teachers have with
students,” Pasnik said. With
proper access to remote learning,
she said, students are able
to remind themselves, “this
is my teacher who knows me
and cares about me and wants
me to feel okay.”
In the same breath, educators,
parents, experts, and advocates
have all agreed that the
fundamental piece to facilitating
a successful learning environment
for a student at home
is for parents and guardians to
play an active role in their children’s
education.
“We have to do our best
to make sure that parents
are involved with their children’s
education,” Caggiano
said. “It’s always a partnership.
Without the parents, it’s
very difficult.”
Continued from page 1
By Ben Verde
Brooklyn Paper
Citi Bike owner Lyft will
provide free access to its bikeshare
program for those on
the front lines of the coronavirus
pandemic, the company
announced on March 24.
Citing an increase in demand
at stations near major
hospitals, the company
will provide free month-long
memberships of the bikeshare
service for healthcare
workers, transit workers, and
first responders.
“If your job at MTA,
NYPD, FDNY or a hospital
requires you to move around,
I strongly encourage you to
become a Citi Bike member,”
said Department of Transportation
Commissioner Polly
Trottenberg.
City officials have touted
cycling as a safer alternative
to mass transit, as cases of
the highly contagious novel
coronavirus increase every
day. Getting around on two
wheels may also prove to
be the most efficient way to
travel, as the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority
recently announced it will
be cutting service dramatically
while the pandemic
rages, due to a huge drop
off in ridership.
The rise in cycling has also
led to a push for more temporary
bike infrastructure.
So far, a temporary protected
bike lane has been slotted for
Brooklyn’s Smith Street —
an essential passage on the
route to the Manhattan Bridge
— and Mayor Bill de Blasio
has announced he will close
at least two streets to cars in
each borough.
In the meantime, the company
that owns Citi Bike is
sanitizing its fleet more regularly,
to scrub unwanted
germs from its communal
handlebars.
Riding for free
Citi Bike aids essential workers amid crisis
A Citi Bike rack.
Photo by Kevin Duggan
/ProstateCenterNY.org
/www.BrooklynPaper.com
/www.BrooklynPaper.com
/coronavirus
/nycwell