Letter: School Disatisfaction

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Letter to the Editor

I am the parent of two, outraged by the ongoing PCB contamination in Malibu’s schools. My daughters entered MHS in 2012-13. Neither child had headaches prior to attending MHS. My eldest developed migraines in ninth grade, visited many doctors and missed a lot of school. In 2013, my youngest entered ninth grade and developed both migraines and ongoing skin rashes. Migraines do not run in our family …

When the news broke in October 2014, I researched PCBs and learned headaches and skin rashes are initial signs of toxic PCB exposure. 

I am outraged by the blatant disregard and complacency of the SMMUSD continuing to keep children in classrooms in violation of the federal law, with PCBs above 50 ppm. 

On March 19, Environ/SMMUSD did not divulge at the school board meeting the nine additional test results (from Environ) indicating some of the highest levels of PCBs in the nation (570,000 ppm).

The SMMUSD has wasted $3.275 million on a company hired to manipulate and tell us our schools are safe; they spent $775,000+ on legal fees and hundreds of thousands on PR to manage “their well-deserved bad image.”  

I pulled my kids out of school this year. They are homeschooling. They want to be at MHS, but they will not return if the SMMUSD refuses to remove illegal levels of PCBs. Not by coincidence, my kids no longer have migraines (not one!) or skin rashes.  

During the March 19 SMMUSD board meeting, one individual labeled anyone concerned about PCBs “whackos” and “hysterical.” How insulting. I see educated, dedicated, concerned and frustrated parents seeking to protect our children — 18 months and $5 million later, the SMMUSD has failed to remediate one single PCB.

SMMUSD could allocate Propositions BB/ES monies to build a new school for approximately $60 million. At a minimum, they should properly remediate the school! The estimated cost to remove PCBs per classroom is between $4,000-$6,000. They can remediate for less money than it costs to clean and test every six months.  

It is time to fire Environ and Sandra Lyon. Too many bad decisions led to more than $5 million spent with no results.

Cheryl Torrey