Calm Prevails as N.Y. Schools Reopen Amid Tighter Security

School officials on Monday monitored the return of 1 million students from a racially violent holiday and said calm prevailed as three white teen-agers accused of chasing a black man to his death stayed home.

“We are not looking for trouble but we are prepared in the event of a problem,” said Robert Terte, spokesman for the city Board of Education.

Police were on alert as the students returned to the nation’s largest school system, and officials said the day was tense but uneventful.

“We’re aiming at as normal a school day as possible,” said Louis Accera, principal of John Adams High School in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, where the three white youths charged in the attack are enrolled.

Police squad cars sat outside the school and a mobile unit of private security guards hired by the schools patrolled racially troubled neighborhoods.

The three white teen-agers were part of a white group that screamed racial slurs early Dec. 20 as they beat the blacks with baseball bats and tree limbs. One victim, Michael Griffith, 23, was struck by a car and killed while fleeing his assailants.

Another victim, Cedric Sandiford, 36, has refused to testify until charges are filed against the driver, Dominick Blum, 24, a court officer and son of a police officer. Authorities said Blum was not part of the assault.