Letter: Heads in the Sand

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Letter to the Editor

Malibu High parents have the right to ask, “Where were Malibu City Council members when toxins were first detected in the soil at Malibu High School in 2009 and when remediation occurred in 2011?” 

Finding contamination on school grounds is not an unusual occurrence. A town leadership and local papers that stay silent on the subject is. In 2007, when the Paramus (New Jersey) School District withheld news about pesticides in the soil at West Brook Middle School for four months, the Bergen County Record broke the story, the town’s mayor shut down the school for remediation, and the school board put the superintendent on extended leave. 

In 2010, Lexington (MA) Public Schools temporarily closed Estabrook Elementary School when elevated levels of PCBs were detected in classroom air samples. In 2012, the city of Lexington filed a class-action suit against Monsanto on behalf of the Lexington school district and all school districts in the state with PCB problems in their schools.

And in 2011, when PCBs were found in the athletic field soil and later in the groundwater during a school renovation project at Greenwich High in Greenwich, Connecticut, town and school officials worked together to create a plan for remediation. Their strategy includes canceling summer school and restricting staff access to campus while the work is being done over two successive summers.

Isn’t the difficult work of local advocacy exactly what a City Council is for? Malibu City Council members should have been advocating for our children’s health in 2009, 2010 and 2011. MHS parents and new candidates for office are the only ones now asking hard questions of our school and local officials. Sadly, five months after the contamination at MHS became national news, our school district staff, our school board members, and the City Council appear more interested in backpedaling on their bad choices than in protecting the health and welfare of local children and addressing citizens’ concerns. 

The next SMMUSD board meeting is Thursday night in Malibu. City Council members, come show your support for parents and teachers. It’s not too late to act. 

Hope Edelman, MHS Parent