The safety of the students is in question at Malibu High School, one of the top-performing public schools in the United States. A health scare, which involves toxic chemicals, is hounding the elite California school, and has sparked a nationwide debate with parents, teachers and popular personalities going against district officials.
According to the New York Times, parents are worried about the safety of the students after highly toxic chemical compounds, called polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, were discovered at the school's classroom windows three years ago. PCBs were popularly used in electronics and building materials until they were banned in the late 1970s after studies found that they could potentially cause immune problems, cancer and lower IQs among kids.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has released testing results in 2015 indicating that Malibu High School's classrooms are safe for students and staff members. The report, which was agreed by the Environmental Protection Agency, stated that classrooms remain safe due to the "district's best management cleaning practices."
But a lot of parents and teachers were not convinced with the testing results. They filed a case to require the district to take away all contaminated caulking. Last week, the court ruled that the lawsuit could move forward.
The worried parents have also earned support from environmental advocates and popular personalities including supermodel Cindy Crawford. Crawford, who pulled her two kids from the school, appeared on a national television campaign and proposed to finance test caulking for PCBs. However, the supermodel's proposal was rejected.
School and health officials insisted that the presence of PCBs in the building materials of Malibu High School does not mean that there is a health scare. They added that they are regularly testing the air and extensively cleaning the windows to lessen dust from caulking.
The issue has sparked a nationwide debate while school board meetings in the wealthy beach community have turned chaotic, with parents yelling and calling district officials as liars. CBS News reports that school officials said that they are dealing with the problem, however, a lot of parents refused to believe them.
On the other hand, Jennifer deNicola, a mother who has spearheaded the campaign to remove PCBs, insisted that the school is not safe and she worries about her child every day. "We know there's a problem, and they refuse to acknowledge it," she expressed.
The health scare at Malibu High School started in 2013 after three teachers were consecutively diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Federal law mandates that any building materials containing PCBs should be removed.
