California school ignores Healthy School Act and sprays without clearly notifying parents

 

Today our son's elementary school in San Jacinto, Ca. is again ignoring the laws of "The Healthy Schools Act of 2000".  They have sprayed pesticides on campus with no regard to safety of the kids.  Last Wednesday, 9-11 (oddly enough) they sprayed and should have given 72 hours notice as the law requires.  We found out they had sprayed because our child has autism and is extremely sensitive to toxins.  Our son was very irritable, crying, screaming and hyperactive.  On Friday, 9-13, we received a phone call from his teacher telling us to pick up our son because he was so irritable.  That night we found a notice in our son's backpack saying they were going to be spraying, however no date as to when.  Our son has had a reaction to pesticides in the past and we have a doctor’s note saying he should not be exposed.  We know the law requires the schools to post a notice 24 hours before a spraying and 72 hours notice in writing.  The school posted the notices the day of the spraying and it was not in a visible spot.  My wife went to the school to find out who was responsible for contacting the parents.  The receptionist said it was the maintenance department’s job.  She asked for a copy of the form that was originally filled out at the school on 8-6-02.  The form clearly states the form is to be kept at the *school* and the *school* will notify the parents 72 hours before application.  We then wrote the principal informing her of this problem and how it affected our son.  We never got a response to the letter or even an apology.  This morning, as we were getting ready to take our son to school, we received a message informing us that they were in the process of spraying.  So we received notification 1 hour before school was to start (and probably the only parents who *did* get notified).  I went to the school and there was only one small sign posted (1 out of the 4 possible entrances into the school) and it was posted with today’s date (not posted 24 hours like they’re supposed to by law).  The posted note was 5”x 4" and was posted on a door that is open most of the time with all of the traffic in the morning – so even that one sign was probably not noticed by the majority of parents.  Pesticides are horrible to the health of everyone, especially children.

Can you comment on how to best fight this? 

Sincerely,

Michael and Robin Dooley

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