Last October, I attended a meeting led by district superintendent Sandra Lyon, who promised she would do all she could to address and fix the suspected toxin problem at Malibu High School. It’s April and the problem is not fixed, despite the fact that results from initial testing meant the EPA, a federal government agency, had to be brought in.
I am not a researcher. I’m a mom with a fierce desire to keep my family safe and here is what I know: I know that toxins are not just up at the campus; they are everywhere. I know that they are in the air we breathe, the food we ingest and the water we drink. The chemicals in our deodorant, make up, perfumes and cleaners — the list is endless — are also increasing our toxin load.
A toxin does not stand alone. It combines with other toxins we’ve encountered over our lifetime, resulting in cumulative damage. You know what else I know? I know that when I was eight months pregnant, I began having gran mal seizures “out of nowhere.” “Out of nowhere” became a brain tumor and when that tumor was removed and biopsied, it was a grade four glioblastoma. There is no grade five.
Given that there is no genetic link for brain tumors, I began to live a cleaner, less toxin-filled life. 11 years later, I’m alive and have a beautiful kid. I think of all the things I can’t control that heighten her toxin load. But the things I can control—like the possible contamination at the high school where she spends a minimum of 35 hours a week, August through June—I want answers about. So when someone says to me that I’m “governed by the politics of hysteria,” I nod my head, agreeing that when it comes to my kid, I am most definitely hysterical.
This is a community issue. If you live up by the high school, if you play on their fields, or even if you just walk your dog around its track, we need you to stand up for what is right.
Sky Kunerth