Students Return to California School After Asbestos Scare

A school asbestos abatement project that forced hundreds of California public students to commute nearly 18 miles to other schools is now over. The younger students at Oak View Elementary School returned to their regular school earlier this month, nearly two years after the discovery of asbestos required Ocean View School District officials to shut down Oak View, Lake View and Hope View elementary schools — displacing more than 1,600 students. Transformation of the school building, including renovations and asbestos abatement, began a year and a half ago at a cost of nearly $6 million, according to KABC-Channel 7. “We did a lot of work here,” Gina Clayton-Tarvin, president of the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees, told KABC. “There was abatement of not only asbestos but lead paint and mold.” School upgrades include new carpeting, flooring and lighting, as well as refreshed landscaping around the perimeter of the building. Older students at Oak View, about 750 of them, had returned to the school’s portable classrooms after the school shut down because officials found asbestos in ceiling tiles. Students at Hope View returned to their school in September 2015. Lake View remains closed. “They really endured a lot of hardship having to be moved,” Clayton-Tarvin said. Mounting Asbestos Abatement Costs While workers completed asbestos abatement in all three schools last fall, the district took the opportunity to modernize the build...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Asbestos Exposure & Bans Source Type: news