We oppose the introduction of lights at the Malibu High School athletic fields.
Since 1983, Bill has belonged to a local service club that over that time has donated well over $300,000 to the school located there. He has been the leading or second place fundraiser for that group every year. Our daughter attended Malibu High School, graduating in 2003. She participated in interscholastic athletics every semester. She played in the orchestra, the band and the jazz band. She played softball on the field used by the high school every year until she was 15. We think Malibu has a great high school with great teachers.
However, the administration has jumped the rails. When the school was originally proposed one of the ways it was going to meet its budgetary and community goals was to forego the most expensive sport, football, from which at least some of the impetus for the lighting proposal comes. We are now being asked to “pay” for nighttime sports in lost peacefulness and beauty, to say nothing of wasting the bond money. We have voted in favor of every school bond since moving to our home in Malibu in 1980. We’re in the same one, about two and a half miles from the school. The temporary lights have consistently interfered with our enjoyment of the night environment. They are visible from our home, from Encinal Canyon where they render stars invisible and certainly from Zuma Beach. Night is part of the environment-please permit its nurture to continue by turning down this assault on us by the school. It is sad indeed that an entity that we cherish has chosen to attack us. Please turn them away.
Rosemary Sampson
Bill Sampson