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Unsafe Schools
Posted by intarso • 4/16/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: asbestos, Cancer, schools, teachers
I write a 2nd blog about asbestos - it's not linked from my BC profile because it's not related to what I do professionally, but I felt that what I was writing about in that one today was worth sharing. Anyone who is a parent should be VERY pissed off about this.
Basically, thousands of schools (in the US, UK, and around the world) have asbestos in them....not to mention your house and where you work has a pretty good chance of containing it too...
For those who don't know what asbestos is, it's a fibrous mineral that when breathed into the lungs can cause all sorts of health problems, including terminal cancers that carry an extremely low survival rate. It is very heat resistant and has a lot of desirable properties so it was used in all sorts of building materials up until a few decades ago. It has been known to cause cancer for at least 100 years, but of course profits come before health, even if it's the health of your kids.
A teacher in the UK was recently diagnosed with mesothelioma, which is an extremely bad cancer caused by asbestos exposure. She got it after teaching in schools filled with the stuff for 30 years. It's not just teachers at risk, although a few hundred of them have gotten this cancer from exposure in schools - students are definitely at risk too. These diseases can take 20 or more years to develop and are often found too late.
In the US, all sorts of regulations are routinely broken by schools who spend tons of money on shiny new computers, but leave deadly asbestos right above kids in the ceilings. Parents and teachers are usually blissfully unaware of just how much asbestos is in schools, and schools are usually quite happy not to tell anyone. Asbestos isn't the only problem - many schools are filled with mold and filthy air conditioning systems with god knows what living and dying in them.
If you have kids or teach in a school that was built more than two decades ago, it's definitely worth looking into and it can often take a public outcry to actually get school districts to do anything.
For a checklist of the asbestos regulations US schools have to follow(but often don't), you can find it in this entry:
theasbestosblog.com/?p=69
User Comments
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When I was in highschool back in the day, the school decided to do construction while classes were in session. The school was just filled with tons of asbestos, having been built decades earlier. There was dust blowing everywhere and they broke every single one of the regulations and didn't seem to care when the teacher's and I asked them about it...
It took calling every TV station in the area as well as every local politician to get construction stopped. They would have happily let everyone breathe in that cancer-causing dust, just to save a little money.
From one newspaper article on it:
"In the past, the district's credibility has suffered after officials told people in mold-filled schools -- many of them suffering from breathing problems and headaches -- that there was no problem, only to admit later there was. Since then parents have filed lawsuits, and the district has spent millions to improve air quality control measures and try and rebuild the community's trust." -
I went to high school in Florida and even when the AC failed, some teachers would not let their students leave class to get a drink of water. Jerks!-
me too, maybe we went to the same school haha.
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North Fort Myers High School?
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nahh fort lauderdale high here, other side of the state
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My school was full of asbestos and we had cyanide in our tea and arsenic in our porridge...never did me any harm! Now pass me the water, my gills are dehydrating...-
well, when you keel over in 30 years your mutant children with three eyeballs can win a big lawsuit and go to Vegas.
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Many schools in the U.S. aren't earthquake safe either. There are just too many other priorities, like bailing out banks and making sure the Speaker of the House has a military jet at beck and call -
Teachers are unsafe too - in the last three months two kids in my nieces class had fallen down the steps outside their class room and broken bones - the teacher told them to "harden up" and didn't take any notice to the pain they were in. It wasn't until the kids got home at the end of the day and taken to the doctors that they were told their bones had been broken.-
like other so called public servants (police, politicians, etc.) the teaching profession has its share of power hungry sadists. i had a simular experience with a bout of Osgood Schlatters Disease during PE. Worthless A$$es!
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there are definitely good teachers and bad teachers. Having worked as an outreach educator in my previous career, I have seen the inside of hundreds of classrooms - the vast majority of teachers I have met are wonderful people who genuinely care about their students. There are some though who are very bitter - perhaps about the lack of appreciation, the poor pay, or simply for personal reasons.
It's definitely a profession in which it is easy to get stressed out, and unfortunately some teachers take their stress out on those around them who can't talk back.
There is no excuse, but luckily bad teachers are in the minority. I certainly had my share growing up though, and always kept that in mind when teaching. I think some teachers just lose sight of what it's like to be a kid.
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Are you kidding, they call in the Hazzardous Waste company everytime a tile or pipe breaks, it is allllllllllll overrrrrrrrrrr my school -
I homeschool my kids because there is tons more wrong with public school then just Asbestos.-
true. There's also mold
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