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Hanes Middle School sits on top of a pool of toxic waste

Liquid Karma

Liquid Karma

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Anyone else been following this in the news?

The plume contains at least one chemical known to cause cancer and another linked to it. About 30 feet to 90 feet below the surface, the plume stretches roughly a third of a mile. It stretches from the source, a decades-old chemical dump, and across the street under the joint school building and its grounds. State environment regulators have flagged the whole underground plume as one of the worst hazardous waste sites in North Carolina. Of the 531 hazardous waste sites on a priority list kept by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, it is ranked 88, in the top 20 percent.
Underground chemicals are toxic
Over the past few years, concentrations of one contaminant under a portion of the school campus have grown stronger.
That spot, where the underground contamination is the worst, is where Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools plans to build a new $15.4 million school to replace the aging Lowrance, the only dedicated middle school for special-needs students.
Drinking water is safe on campus; the schools are connected to city water. But since the contaminants can turn into vapor and seep up from the ground into buildings, it’s the air quality in the schools that raises questions.
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Given how important the air quality issue is, you'd think there is constant monitoring. Nope. They've done tests in 2005 (twice), 2006 (twice), 2007 (once) and in 2014 (once). The tests have all been paid by the current owner of the parcel of land where the new construction will go. The school district has NEVER asked for testing until now.

That is a staggeringly small sample of data when you are playing with the lives hundreds of children.

There was an emergency parent meeting last night, and needless to say it didn't go well for the school. Parents are legit pissed, mostly because the issue was kept hush hush for decades. Many parents pointed out that had they known about it they never would have sent their kids there in the first place. All are appalled by the lack of consistent monitoring.

The reaction from the school and the school board is to get new testing done immediately and then implement a long term continuous testing plan, and in the meantime parents are given the option of keeping their kids at home with no penalty until this next round of testing is done (estimated to be 10 business days). We immediately elected to keep our 6th grader home (I'll just give him a bible and a fuck ton of candy like most home school parents do) as did dozens of other parents. I have a feeling the teachers ( a couple of whom are pregnant) will be justifiably demanding to stay home as well.

Even if the tests come back at acceptable levels, the scare is sufficient enough that many parents will likely request to transfer their kids to another school in district.

I will be shocked if the proposed new building moves forward, and I've got a hunch this is building towards the school being shut down entirely and moving kids somewhere else in the district. Hanes is a magnet school, so all of the Hanes kids have a home school they can attend. Lowrance is the only dedicated special needs school in the district, and I have no idea what they will do with those children. I feel for the parents of those kids who are stuck in an unfortunate position of having to line up care for their kids in the daytime if they choose to pull them out of school right now. It's not the same as me keeping my 6th grader home and telling him not to burn the house down (I work at home, so it's really not a worry for us).

http://wfdd.org/post/parents-demand-haneslowrance-schools-be-shut-down-packed-meeting

http://www.camelcitydispatch.com/ha...rk-about-toxic-waste-under-their-school-6872/

http://wfdd.org/post/wsfc-schools-testing-air-quality-recommended-hanes-lowrance
 
Have a kid in 8th grade there now. Stunning turn of events. Last year it was named the top middle school magnet in the country. Its National Academic League team won the national championship. And now parents are fighting to close it down.
 
WinkinDeac said:
Have a kid in 8th grade there now. Stunning turn of events. Last year it was named the top middle school magnet in the country. Its National Academic League team won the national championship. And now parents are fighting to close it down.
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It's a great school, but we've had some issues so far. One of the 6th grade math teachers is in only her 2nd year of teaching (first in this district) and she's awful. Gets called out by students so frequently for getting things wrong that she flips out and kicks them out of class because her ego can't handle it. Aside from that, we like the teachers and the principal.
 
Can you imagine the lawsuit if this next round of tests comes back even worse than previous years? The city and school district basically lied to parents for years by not disclosing this mess.
 
Oh no, did someone bring a food product with peanuts in it to the lunchroom?!? RUB SOME DIRT ON IT.

Participation trophy generation.....
 
She doesn't have kids there. But she stays on top of everything WSFC Schools-related.
 
I would be pretty pissed as a parent. If they haven't been testing and the results are bad they're going to get the shit sued out of them and rightfully so.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
I would be pretty pissed as a parent. If they haven't been testing and the results are bad they're going to get the shit sued out of them and rightfully so.
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Their position is that none of the past testing results warranted any more testing.

Even if the tests next week are still within acceptable levels, the parents have a right to be pissed about being kept in the dark.
 
Liquid Karma said:
Their position is that none of the past testing results warranted any more testing.

Even if the tests next week are still within acceptable levels, the parents have a right to be pissed about being kept in the dark.
Click to expand...

I hate WSFCS. They're worthless.
 
When I was in high school they abruptly shut down the elementary school I had attended in the middle of the year due to asbestos. Within days they had the various grades split off to different schools, my high school had 5th graders in it, and so did our buses.
I can see something like that happening, unless, say, something like the donated Whitaker Park offices could be immediately leveraged to house the "school" until a permanent solution is found.
 
WOOT Hanes Academic Academy Purple Dragons
 
Any other alums from the Nancy Braddock era?

She spent a short stint in jail for embezzling.

I do wonder if any of this comes to light if it's just a Paisley like neighborhood school instead of the great magnet school.
 
TownieDeac said:
Any other alums from the Nancy Braddock era?

She spent a short stint in jail for embezzling.

I do wonder if any of this comes to light if it's just a Paisley like neighborhood school instead of the great magnet school.
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I see where you are going with this, and I think it's overly cynical nonsense.
 
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