Huffington Magazine Issue 9 | Page 85

HUFFINGTON 08.12.12 mer board members, say they believe the testing conducted over the years has been sufficient, and neither of them has any problem with their children having played on the fields. But other parents still question why they were not made more aware of the existence of the DEC investigation in the first place. Several former board members could not be reached for comment, but Wills, the former superintendent, says nothing about the fields was ever intentionally hidden; rather it was discussed at school board meetings in the years before email was the norm. “It was a different time,” she says. “You had board meetings and, you know, people who came and people who didn’t.” Wills points to the strong reputations of the consulting firms that were hired as one of the reasons the district acted as it did. At no time, she says, did anyone suggest that the fields posed any dangers to the kids. When they put the clean soil over the contaminated fill, she says she thought they were following the DEC’s recommendations. She says she knows some parents in Briarcliff believe that the school played a role in the sicknesses, and deaths, of children under her watch. “I am personally devastated. But that’s nothing compared to what parents feel when they even think that something in the school, which is a safe environment, could affect their child.” Pressed about why she and the school didn’t publicly disclose more about the investigations to parents, Wills repeatedly says that it occurred in a “different time” and that she wasn’t sure what was made known to parents beyond disclosures at board meetings. Whether or not the school district faces liabilities remains to be seen. A New York State Education Department spokesperson declined to comment on what responsibility the district had to make the situation with the fields more known to the public. Robert Graham, a partner with Jenner & Block who practices environmental law and has no involvement in the Briarcliff case, suggests that timing could prove crucial in court. “The fact that there was this seven year delay here would be a material fact in this case,” says Graham. SUDDEN DEATH