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