Letter: Too Late to Cover Up

The following was sent as a letter to SMMUSD Superintendent Sandra Lyon.

It was last October when all of us parents and you gathered in the auditorium of Malibu High School and you assured us, moved to tears, that you personally will take care of the looming environmental danger as soon as humanly possible.

It has been nine months and nothing on your behalf has been done, except writing letters, statements of appeasal and heavily lawyering up to the tune of several hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars (your own statement).

Thanks to Malibu Unites, who released test results to the public, letting us all know how high the PCB count really was, we all were informed of how much toxic danger the students and staff have been exposed to for a long period of time.

After the test results were released, we expected the officials to be shocked and immediately willing to do everything possible. Instead we got rejection, opposition and everything but help. Why do we get the feeling that there must be something certain people want to cover up, instead of try to openly disclose to the public? 

Now we just found out that test levels at the schools are way beyond legal limits, and instead of being thankful that at least one organization was capable of gathering data and finally valid test results, you are blaming them that the samples were gathered without your knowledge.

Does anybody really care how the samples were gathered as long as our children and teachers are safe?

Furthermore, it raises the question, what kind of benefit you and your organization gain in not testing properly and/or trying to cover up facts constantly? 

We seriously doubt that in that stage you can prevent a scandal and firmly believe that it is time to cooperate and finally come forward with the truth.

The property taxes we are paying in Malibu are high enough and the least you would expect is a safe school environment for our children.

We as parents and you as the superintendent have the responsibility to take care of our children and staff.

Peter and Lea Wolf-Millesi