Dismayed over report of TCE at Slater Dismayed over report of TCE at Slater (February 20, 2004)

By Cheryl Brummitt

I have taught at Slater School for over 15 years and was greatly dismayed and upset by your article concerning the finding of TCE here at this site.

Your article presents a picture of parents on the verge of hysteria when this simply is not the case. Perhaps some parents are alarmed by the fact that TCE was detected on three out of the 13 test days. Perhaps some parents do not feel comfortable with the EPA's scientific data explaining that exposure to TCE at Slater is within the safe levels and the chances of getting cancer from this toxin would increase by one in one million or one in ten thousand if exposed within this range for 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 30 years.

If some parents feel too uncomfortable with these odds, then I would suggest that for their peace of mind, they should seek another school. For my part, I look at the data and see that the TCE was found on only three out of 13 test days and accept the EPA's assessment of our safety.

The paragraph that upset and angered me was the one in which you suggest that potential health risks could become a major factor in selecting Slater as the school slated for closure, should such an action be necessary.

I would suggest that before Slater be condemned as a Superfund Site that the other schools be tested for possible pollutants and contaminants. If we are to base the decision of closure on this criteria, then all of the school sites should come under equal scrutiny.

Slater School is too special a place, with caring and dedicated teachers, a dynamic principal, a hardworking support staff and a community of children and parents who have an investment in this school, for it to be simply written off by hysteria and alarm that is not supported by the scientific data.

Cheryl Brummitt lives on Ashton Avenue and is a kindergarten/first-grade teacher at Slater School.

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