Sometimes working on a campaign can be a little surreal. When you are back in the office doing background reading, making calls and fielding emails – there’s some distance. The campaign can feel like a series of tasks, things to check off my “to-do list”. But a day out in the streets brings things roaring back into perspective.
On Tuesday, October 26th, I stood with elected officials and organizers from New York Communities for Change getting petition signatures and talking to parents about potential PCB-contamination in their children’s schools. As I explained the PCBs problem to parent after parent, I was surprised to learn that many of them were unaware of the issue. Once they got it, though, they were really perplexed. Why would the City put their children in harm’s way? They all asked good questions and most wanted to know why they weren’t aware of what was going on. Why weren’t more people in the NYC Public School community told about the pilot study? Why wasn’t there more education and outreach coming from the City about something that could be so harmful to their kids? All good questions, all things we are trying to make happen. And, yes, they want testing. They want testing now. Something else we want to make happen.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
PCBs Press Conference Tomorrow!!!
WHEN: Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 12 P.M
WHERE: In front of City Hall
260 Broadway
New York, NY
Press Conference Outside City Hall to Demand Action on Removing Toxic PCB Chemicals from Public School Classrooms
Activists and elected officials demand that the Department of Education and the EPA take immediate action to test and clean up NYC classrooms
WHAT: PCBs – chemicals which have been proven to pose serious risks to children’s nervous and immune systems and to hamper brain development – are currently found in products like window caulk and lighting fixtures in public schools across New York City. Recent results from a pilot study conducted by the NYC Department of Education and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found significantly elevated levels of PCBs in two of three schools tested, with levels at the third also above guidances, putting thousands of kids at risk. There is every reason to believe that many schools built or renovated between 1950 and the late 1970s will be similarly contaminated.
This Thursday, October 7, at 12:00 P.M., New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, a civil rights law firm that has been deeply involved in community efforts to rid New York City schools of PCBs, will join other leaders on this issue, including Congressman Jerrold Nadler and other elected officials, labor and community organizations, school employees, and parents, to hold a press conference outside of City Hall calling on the Department of Education and the EPA to test all schools built in the relevant timeframe and bring air levels at all contaminated schools within guidance levels immediately.
Confirmed speakers include:
Congressman Jerrold Nadler, United States House of Representatives
Congressman Joseph Crowley, United States House of Representatives
Congressman José Serrano, United States House of Representatives
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, New York State Assembly
New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio
Albert Rodriguez, General Counsel, Office of the Bronx Borough President
Miranda Massie, Litigation Director at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
Regina Castro, New York Communities for Change
Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers
Representatives from SEIU 32BJ and the New York State Laborers’ Union
Parents
WHERE: In front of City Hall
260 Broadway
New York, NY
Press Conference Outside City Hall to Demand Action on Removing Toxic PCB Chemicals from Public School Classrooms
Activists and elected officials demand that the Department of Education and the EPA take immediate action to test and clean up NYC classrooms
WHAT: PCBs – chemicals which have been proven to pose serious risks to children’s nervous and immune systems and to hamper brain development – are currently found in products like window caulk and lighting fixtures in public schools across New York City. Recent results from a pilot study conducted by the NYC Department of Education and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found significantly elevated levels of PCBs in two of three schools tested, with levels at the third also above guidances, putting thousands of kids at risk. There is every reason to believe that many schools built or renovated between 1950 and the late 1970s will be similarly contaminated.
This Thursday, October 7, at 12:00 P.M., New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, a civil rights law firm that has been deeply involved in community efforts to rid New York City schools of PCBs, will join other leaders on this issue, including Congressman Jerrold Nadler and other elected officials, labor and community organizations, school employees, and parents, to hold a press conference outside of City Hall calling on the Department of Education and the EPA to test all schools built in the relevant timeframe and bring air levels at all contaminated schools within guidance levels immediately.
Confirmed speakers include:
Congressman Jerrold Nadler, United States House of Representatives
Congressman Joseph Crowley, United States House of Representatives
Congressman José Serrano, United States House of Representatives
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, New York State Assembly
New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio
Albert Rodriguez, General Counsel, Office of the Bronx Borough President
Miranda Massie, Litigation Director at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
Regina Castro, New York Communities for Change
Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers
Representatives from SEIU 32BJ and the New York State Laborers’ Union
Parents
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