LA United School District - Must Share Info With community

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The Daily News of Los Angeles

November 18, 1999

LAUSD MUST SHARE INFORMATION WITH PUBLIC; COMMUNITIES MUST BE KEPT AWARE OF

VITAL ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY ISSUES

By Rohman Local View

The recent closures of two Los Angeles Unified School District high schools due

to asbestos concerns were the first safety-related closures in many years and

mark a positive shift for the district toward regaining the public's confidence.

Historically, LAUSD has chosen not to close schools for environmental hazards.

According to one LAUSD environmental staff person, ''There is an unwritten

policy in the district: You do not close a school for an environmental problem.

It looks bad if you close a school and find nothing. It looks bad if you do find

something.''

This statement comes from a report released in late September by my firm, Public

Interest Investigators, Inc., which was charged with conducting an extensive

investigation of the district's monitoring of environmental hazards at all of

its campuses.

What our investigators found was a district practice of underreporting hazards

to the public in such areas as asbestos abatement, lead paint monitoring and

proper handling of chemicals. District managers justified this practice by

saying they didn't want to scare parents needlessly. However, the reports of

safety hazards at Belmont, South Gate and Jefferson Middle School have

significantly damaged public confidence to the point that many believe the

district is incapable of protecting children and staff from environmental

dangers.

Avoiding public outcry by underreporting hazards is no longer an option for the

district.

LAUSD must work to regain its credibility, a process that begins with full

disclosure of hazards and, when appropriate, school closures. Parents and staff

also need to play a role in their schools' environmental health. While advocates

for higher teacher salaries and academic achievement regularly lobby the

district, no group has emerged demanding environmental safety.

Our investigation found that the people who traditionally filled this watchdog

role - the employees of the district's Environmental Health and Safety Branch -

were often overruled in an LAUSD bureaucracy in which departments with the

biggest budgets and staffing held the organizational clout. The 50-person health

and safety branch is minuscule when compared to the district's maintenance unit,

for example, whose employees number in the thousands. Thus, when Environmental

Health and Safety staff raised concerns about environmental problems, they were

often ignored by other entities in the district.

While the recent campus closures show LAUSD's willingness to take strong steps,

a culture as ingrained as the district's will be slow to change. Clearly the

district must empower its in-house environmental experts, but in the meantime,

parents, teachers and principals must also begin to play a role in demanding

safe schools.

Information is critical to this process. District policies currently require

that public files be maintained at each school regarding asbestos and use of

pesticides. Parents need to verify that these files exist at their schools and

that they are up-to-date. Moreover, the district must inform parents and staff

when safety hazards occur.

During my firm's investigation of LAUSD, we learned that a hazardous spill had

occurred at my own children's elementary school at a time when my wife was on

the PTA board. To my knowledge, none of the school's parents were informed of

this hazard. This practice of ''hiding the ball'' needs to change, allowing

parents to make an informed decision about sending their children to school

while a toxic hazard is present.

Our report recommends that the district prepare an ongoing, comprehensive

environmental audit of safety hazards at all schools, posting this information

on its Web site and in each school office. The district should also commit

itself to outside compliance monitoring to ensure that this information is

updated and complete. This kind of accountability would go a long way toward

rebuilding public trust.

With greater disclosure, parents and staff may well demand changes and

improvements, a shift that could have a positive effect on the district. Indeed,

LAUSD might be facing fewer problems today if vital information about

environmental safety issues had been shared with the public early on, resulting

in a strong constituency to press the district for improvements.

While our investigation focused on LAUSD, the problems of environmental hazards

in schools are not confined to Los Angeles. Students throughout California

attend schools in old buildings with the potential for problems with asbestos

and lead paint. Others may be near landfills or pollutants from agriculture or

industry. Parents, teachers, administrators and school board members need to

join forces with environmental experts to ensure children a safe environment for

learning.

Rohman is the president of Public Interest Investigations, Inc., a firm

that conducts third-party investigations for corporations and governmental

entities. PII presented its report on environmental monitoring to the Los

Angeles Board of Education on Sept. 30.