Morality or Corruption in Beverly Hills High School: Our Choice?

I've always been a believer in this country. A couple hundred years ago, we chose to create ourselves, to create a nation where voices are heard, and where truth is judged on its own merits. We even legislated education so that our nation would be made up of an educated populace. When America started, our morals and our values were exactly what was driving and enforcing the laws. We were--we are a stubborn, fiercely independent people and we make up our own minds. The American people have never been sheep. But now... Recently I've seen a change in the court of public opinion–a change for the worse. It is a change that makes me wonder if we are still a nation based on ideals. Now when an attorney loses a case, it appears that public opinion sides with the first solution, the easy solution. When an attorney loses a case, now public opinion sides with the law. Public opinion says, "Well okay, the law says there's nothing wrong. Therefore, it's okay." What case am I talking about? Well, really, I wanted to talk about Beverly Hills High School. This is a litigation that started maybe three years ago and it concerns about a thousand plaintiffs–former students and some neighborhood residents, plaintiffs who attended or lived very close to Beverly Hills High School. Underneath Beverly Hills High School are eighteen operational well-heads. Right next door, basically on the school property, is Sempra Energy, who operates several large cooling towers, and that has been using hexavalent chromium since about 1968—possibly before that time—until about 1992. At the present time one cooling tower still has hazardous levels of hexavalent chromium. It is our right, our duty, our responsibility to protect the school. To protect our children. America's children. Children attending school in a sick environment. In a city who knew that the facility could deteriorate the air. Who knew that the on-shore oil platform could blow up. The South Coast Air Quality Management District sent its own experts out to the onshore oil platform, and guess what those experts did? They all ran off because they thought it might blow up. The inspectors wrote back via email and said that "I would be concerned too if my child attended school here." So there is not only the issue of the chemicals, but there is an issue of a potential explosion. Of the thousand plaintiffs, 409 have cancer. We just finished the trial of the first twelve, which we lost. It's up on appeal. The city was let out on immunity, which is surprising because I don't know how anyone gets out on immunity when they had prior knowledge. ( In 1984, the city of Beverly hills sent the oil industry a questionnaire regarding the oil platform underneath the school. They asked them, "Could this facility deteriorate the air? Could the facility have an impact on human health? Could the facility blow up? AND, the oil company’s response was “Maybe.") The school district has one motion pending. Semper Energy has been stayed. The oil company has been stayed. The 900+ other plaintiffs have been stayed, all pending the outcome of the appeal. I had several interviews on this case lately, and people keep asking me, "Well, what if you lose?" And so I ask, what if we lose? Does that suddenly mean that 409 people don't have cancer? What if we lose? Does that now mean that it is okay to build oil platforms underneath public high schools and not disclose their existence to the parents? to the public? Does that suddenly mean that it's okay to build power plants on top of public schools? I don't think so. I've never understood even in the Hinkley case, the argument about the hexavalent chromium. It clearly causes cancer, by inhalation, and certain forms of cancer. But there are these ongoing arguments about ingestion of hexavalent chromium. How can there be a question about it? Hexavalent chromium is a poison. We shouldn't be drinking it. At all. Science has not caught up with the law, and that’s unfortunate. So the more I work on these cases, the more I watch the outcomes. Some are good, some are bad. We don't know the outcome of Beverly Hills High yet. We have to talk about it. When we don't talk about it, we just brush things like this under the rug, I think this makes us become as guilty as industry. Industry isn't talking about it. Industry is brushing the problem under the rug. Out of sight, out of mind. And that is a real tragedy. Because at stake is our health, the protection of our children. The safety of our children is far too important to sweep under the rug. It's not just a lawsuit to be ignored, and then everyone says, "Well, there was nothing wrong anyway." Something is wrong. So the more I work on these cases, the more outspoken I am moved to become. About the law. About right and wrong. Sometimes decisions are made, and judgments that aren't right come down through the courts. We'll see what happens with Beverly Hills High School. Currently the case is stayed. We'll see the outcome of the twelve in the appeal process. And I will keep blogging about what is happening at Beverly Hills High School. Because I can't help but keep wondering...since we can legislate to remove vending machines because chips and cola could be bad for our kids health, why can't we legislate to protect our children from eighteen potentially explosive well-heads simmering below their classrooms? And I will leave you today with a question. If YOU had full knowledge that your children were attending a school that could blow up, that could deteriorate the air, and could harm your children, would you send them there?