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GIRAFFE IN THIS ISSUE
Giraffe Heroes
Sue Lewallen, Tina Dierkes and Marcia ClarkWhen we send our children off to school, we'd like to believe they'll be well taken care of there. Three conscientious teachers in Oregon take that responsibility so seriously, they risked their careers to protect the children.
It started on a June afternoon when a light ballast ignited in Sue Lewallen's classroom, spewing a black tarry substance onto desks and spreading an acrid stink throughout a wing of the school. Lewallen had seen it happen before at the school, but this time she found herself getting nauseous, losing focus and suffering headaches.
Though told that it was "just tar," she scooped up a sample and faced down her principal, telling him she was getting it tested. When the mess wasn't cleaned up for days, she sent her sample to a lab, which reported not "tar" but PCBs, at a level far beyond safety levels. (What are PCBs?)
Teachers Tina Dierkes and Marcia Clark joined Lewallen in her determination to get the dangerous light fixures out of the building, and the school cleaned of PCBs. Dierkes had lost her hearing in one ear and suffered vertigo attacks after a chemical spill at another school in the same district. She called the EPA, blowing the whistle on the school district's administration. Clark invited a reporter to an in-school hearing on the PCB issue so that people outside the school would get the word that there was a serious problem.
When Dierkes challenged the school's plan to hold summer school in the contaminated building, the school superintendent repeatedly ordered her to sit down. She kept talking. When the EPA responded to her call with an on-site inspection, they found high levels of PCBs in the carpets and on other surfaces throughout the school.
Making a surprise visit at a nearby school, the EPA inspectors found that the offending lights had already been removed-- but were being stacked on the playground. College students hired to do the removal had been given no protective clothing or breathing masks.
Clark and Dierkes were the spokespersons for the determined trio. Dierkes had a long history of glowing performance evaluations but was written up for "unprofessional communication." Her union refused to help her fight the clear attempt to damage her career. When she couldn't find a local attorney to represent her, Dierkes was taken on by the Government Accountability Project, which filed a lawsuit against the district, charging retaliation.
The EPA levied a $328,000 fine on the district for mishandling a dangerous chemical. But the problems didn't stop. The ceiling in Dierkes' classroom was asbestos and crumbling; pesticides were sprayed in classrooms. Kids and teachers were getting sick; the trio went back into action. Labeled "extremists" they were attacked by fellow teachers at meetings and in email forums, and were shunned in person. Both Clark and Dierkes left the school, and Dierkes has retired on disability-- she's losing what was left of her hearing and the vertigo hasn't stopped.
Because of the three teachers' efforts, the district's schools have been cleared of asbestos and PCBs, and teachers in other districts have followed the lead of Sue Lewallen, Marcia Clark and Tina Dierkes in speaking up for the safety of their students.
Visit the Giraffe website to learn about The Giraffe Program, a K-12 curriculum that teaches kids about real heroes and gets them going on lives of courage, caring and responsibility, and the Giraffe Partners Trunk--everything a business or club needs to help a classroom full of kids to stand tall.
WHAT ARE PCBS? Polychlorinated biphenyls are a mixture of individual chemicals which are no longer produced in the United States, but are still found in the environment. Health effects that have been associated with exposure to PCBs include acne-like skin conditions in adults and neurobehavioral and immunological changes in children. PCBs are known to cause cancer in animals. PCBs have been used as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors, and other electrical equipment because they don't burn easily and are good insulators. The manufacture of PCBs was stopped in the U.S. in 1977 because of evidence they build up in the environment and can cause harmful health effects. Products made before 1977 that may contain PCBs include old fluorescent lighting fixtures and electrical devices containing PCB capacitors.
Copyright © 2006 The Giraffe Project, all rights reserved.Posted with permission by New Horizons for Learning
http://www.newhorizons.org
E-mail: info@newhorizons.org
