An elementary school in Missouri riddled with radioactive contamination is to be closed, it was announced at an emotional school board meeting on Tuesday night.
A new independent environmental study, made public last week, found significant radioactive material throughout Jana Elementary School in Florissant.
The contamination was discovered in the library, cafeteria, basketball courts and kindergarten playground of the school, located in the northern suburb of St. Louis, and where the majority of the 400 students are Black.
The board of the Hazelwood School District, where the elementary school is located, announced at a packed meeting on Tuesday that students would revert to virtual lessons on Monday. Redistricting options were being explored for next semester.
The school board members apologised to parents, and said that they were working with legal counsel to ensure “the necessary clean up of any and all hazardous waste”.
The meeting was extended due to the number of comments from members of the community, many who were highly emotional.
One man raised the contamination as one of environmental justice and urged the school board to look into the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act which includes funding to specifically address toxic pollution which has long disproportionately impacted communities of color.
Some speakers thanked the school board for taking action while others demanded to know why the news of the radioactive material had not been communicated sooner.
Other parents and caregivers were frustated by the return to virtual lessons after children had spent months of the pandemic learning this way.
“We don’t blame you all for what happened but we do want to hear what’s going on,” said one mother, Patrice Strickland.
Kimberly Patterson, whose three grandchildren attend Jana Elementary, also said that there had been little communication about the radioactive contamination and that she had already started planning bloodwork and testing for them.
A number of residents broke down as they spoke about the high rates of cancer and other illnesses that they said are prevalent in the community.
Karen Nickel, who grew up in the area formed Just Moms STL, which has campaigned for the clean up of the nuclear waste. She spoke about her battle with autoimmune diseases and how her daughter was born with a mass on her ovary.
She thanked the school board for making the decision to remove the children from the school.
“No one protected me,” she said. “You guys are saving lives.”
Trisha Burns, who told the meeting that her child has rare cancer of the thymus warned that the toxic pollution could go on “for generations” and called for lifelong screening for all those who lived in the area.
Missouri State Representative Doug Clemens, who chairs a caucus to tackle legacy waste in the state, warned that children were most susceptible to the ionizing radiation pollution. He lambasted the federal Department of Energy, and also the Department of Defense, for “dragging their feet cleaning it up”.
The new report was conducted by environmental consultants Boston Chemical Data Corp. Based on dust samples gathered in August, the independent analysis found radioactive isotope lead-210, polonium, radium contamination, and other toxins, “far in excess” throughout the school.
The grim findings shocked but hardly surprised many local residents who have long warned about the impacts of the radioactive waste dumped in the open air at the nearby West Lake landfill half a century ago by the US Department of Energy.
