BY KATIE PRINCE

JESSUP — Cell phone antennas on the roof of LaSalle Academy have been up for less than a month, but they’ll soon come down.

Twelve Nextel cell phone antennas on the Catholic school on First Avenue, adjacent to the primary school playground, will be scrapped after parents concerned about radiation made a fuss, a school official confirmed Thursday.

The antennas have been installed, but the Rev. William Blake, pastor of St. Michael’s, decided “a few days ago” to cancel the agreement after weighing parents’ concerns, said Dr. James Tarity, principal of LaSalle. The antennas were weeks away from being operational, he added.

Feelings about the antennas are mixed, and some parents threatened to take their children out of the school if they weren’t removed.

“I wasn’t convinced there were zero health risks,” said Kim Gambucci, of Archbald. Her 5-year-old daughter’s classroom is on the third floor, she said, just below where the antennas are mounted.

She learned of the plan at a parent meeting shortly after school started and immediately started researching potential harmful effects of cell phone antennas. After discussing the matter with her husband, Mrs. Gambucci said, the couple was prepared to enroll their daughter in a different school.

“We, as parents, feel it’s our job to protect our children.” she said, adding she is pleased she won’t have to resort to finding a different school.

“Father Blake listened to the concerns and weighed them carefully,” Dr. Tarity said. “It was a small minority of the parents. The majority was for it.”

Count parent Nick Barchak among the alleged majority.

“I totally supported it,” he said. “They are 100 percent harmless.”

More worried about the diocese’s revenue problems and school consolidation than radiation, Mr. Barchak said the school should do everything it can to help the financial situation.

Parish officials agreed to place the 6-foot antennas on the church to generate revenue, diocesan spokesman Bill Genello said last month after angry neighbors blasted the antennas as hideous and dangerous. He would not say how much the parish would get under the deal.

Dr. Tarity would not provide specifics on when the devices will be removed or whether any contract was broken, explaining that the parish will work that out with Nextel privately.

“I know they have to go somewhere, but on top of an elementary school?” asked parent Debbie Cotage, who just learned of the antennas Friday afternoon.

“I don’t like that at all.”

Before agreeing to the antennas, the parish thoroughly researched dangers associated with radiation, Dr. Tarity said.

“The evidence we have in hand says it’s 150 percent safe,” Dr. Tarity said. “Nothing was intended to do any harm. We looked at research, met with engineers. We really analyzed it 10 different ways.”