When our school was tainted with toxic PCBs in 2011, the DOE just didn’t care. It was the UFT that made sure the building was safe for our teachers and paras and students. They were phenomenal.
A teacher at my school, who happened to be pregnant, had noticed black oily stuff all over the desks in her classroom. She cleaned it up with a paper towel because she didn’t know what it was. Then she saw a New York Times article about PCBs, and it all came together.
The initial response from the DOE was that they weren’t going to do anything. They told my principal not to even quarantine the room, but she did anyway. The DOE was basically trying to dismiss it and downplay it as much as possible. They weren’t even going to replace the light fixtures. But the UFT did not allow it to be dismissed.
There was great concern from the teachers. What’s going on in my classroom? Is there any danger? We had a staff member who had passed away from severe stomach cancer, and there were stains from the PCBs right above her desk where she sat and drank her coffee and ate her lunch for many years. My God, what goes through your mind when you see that?
We needed people to come in and share with us what the realities were about whether it was dangerous to us. That was 100 percent the UFT. They made sure that anyone who came in direct contact with it had blood tests taken. They made sure we had independent contractors to verify the air quality in the building. They even checked the basement for mold and for any other issues in the building. The DOE hadn’t even brought in people to inspect.
There was no way any of that was going to happen without the UFT.
Rodney Schneider is a teacher and former chapter leader at PS 36 in Staten Island.
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