The screen grab, above, comes from a Tweet regarding this evening's Scranton School District (SSD) board meeting. You can follow the reporter's Twitter feed HERE. This is another chapter in the story of buried and ignored lead and asbestos findings in district buildings. By way of backstory, click on THIS link. Here's one key point of that article:
"Scranton first tested its water in 2016, after the lead crisis in Flint, Michigan, drew national attention to the issue. That June, the district announced it had shut off eight water fountains and 11 sinks after test results revealed elevated lead levels in the water. Officials had planned to replace the brass or bronze fittings in the affected places that summer, but the district has been unable to find any proof the issues were addressed."
What Superintendent McTiernan fails to grasp by her comment is the perception that things are never actually taken care of in the SSD. No one is held accountable. The examples are legion, and some have been chronicled in this blog over the years, from an egregiously ridiculous no-bid busing contract that was actually renewed with no objections, to school board directors failing to attend meetings, to nepotism so bad that it boarders on shameful.
Case in point: The felon former business administrator of the SSD, who pleaded guilty to getting free auto repairs from the district for himself and his "family", and received probation for his efforts. Oh, and his wife (a.k.a. his "family") still works for the SSD. Reference HERE and HERE. You can't make this up.
As someone who attended the SSD myself and who had children attend as well, I have to ask if I was exposed to lead and asbestos. The harmful effects of these things have been known for decades, so why it even took until 2016 for this to come to light escapes me. It should be shocking to no one that, for example, a 114 or so year old building might have asbestos issues. In fact, the truly shocking part is the fact that no one bothered to look into it until 2016...and then they did nothing about it.
The people involved in hiding the 2016 testing results should be held criminally responsible for their actions. They intentionally put children and staff in SSD buildings in harm's way. Scranton residents, current and past (including me) will have to make due with the heaping of shame upon prior administrations for yet another example of their gross incompetence.
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