Leland High School T-Mobile Tower Meeting

People haven’t heard of this because everybody within 500 ft. of the tower site must be notified, and since the cellphone tower is at Leland, even though Leland and Bret Harte have 3000 students,  the closest houses are 200+ ft. away. Only a few close by residents were notified, most of the parents of the 3000 students are not notified.

The purpose of this article is to create a record of what happened on this day, and who is responsible to either to cancel or vote for the contract. Because the kids would be  exposed many hours per day to the cell phone tower emission, this may have long lasting effects that we are unable to predict.  Any comments are welcomed so that we can have accurate record of this event, and we sincerely hope the school board members will take the time to read this article and all the comments.  Some parents had written arguments, you may post them here as comments. If you did not have the chance to speak there, now it is your chance. Because of spam, we will have to approve your comments manually, so be patient.

http://almadenbusiness.com/leland-high-school-t-mobile-tower-meeting/

Meeting minutes:

Date: Tuesday 04/05/2011

Time: 6:00pm

Room: Leland High School cafeteria

People: San Jose Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Vincent Mathews and Concerned Parents and Students

The Superintendent, his staff and some board members hosted a community meeting on the proposed construction of a cell tower at Leland.   Previously, some concerned parents attended the San Jose Unified School District Board meeting on March 24.  At last Wednesday’s (March 30, 2011) community meeting, Board member Leslie Reynolds confirmed the school district can still cancel the contract with T-Mobile.  After hearing our concerns, Leslie agreed to stand up for us and request that  the district rescind the contract.

In an effort to help school finances, the local school board wanted to replace the flag pole beside the scoreboard in the football field with a T-Mobile cell phone tower. In return, the school would receive $2,000 a month for the next five years, with an annual 3% increase. The city has already approved the permit.

Dr. Vincent Mathews: “If we did not feel they were safe we would not have them at the schools.”  He quoted the following:

• The American Cancer Society: “Some people have expressed concern that living, working, or going to school near a cell phone tower might increase the risk of cancer or other health problems. At this time, there is very little evidence to support this idea. In theory, there are some important points that would argue against cellular phone towers being able to cause cancer.”, link here http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/OtherCarcinogens/AtHome/cellular-phone-towers

• World Health Organization: “Considering the very low exposure levels and research results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects”. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs304/en/index.html
• Federal Communication Commission FCC:  “radiofrequency emissions from antennas used for cellular and PCS transmissions result in exposure levels on the ground that are typically thousands of times below safety limits.  These safety limits were adopted by the FCC based on the recommendations of expert organizations and endorsed by agencies of the Federal Government responsible for health and safety.  Therefore, there is no reason to believe that such towers could constitute a potential health hazard to nearby residents or students.”   http://www.fcc.gov/oet/rfsafety/rf-faqs.html
• Mathews said that seven other schools in the city already have cell towers.

The Leland cafeteria was packed with people (must be more than 200).  Many waited in line to speak, and not everyone waiting was allowed a turn to speak, in order to conclude the meeting on time.

During the meeting, many parents stood up to speak against the project. One student also spoke. There were two individuals in favor of installing the tower: one man claimed to be a scientist who says the emission is very low and there is no proof of harm; the second is a lady who says she preferred to having a tower installed so that she can have better signal. Many people made disparaging comments and noises as those two spoke, but Dr. Vincent Mathews reminded people to allow different opinions to be heard.

Some excerpts from the voices of the parents:

• The school’s field is named for another famous alum, Pat Tillman, who turned down a lucrative contract with the Arizona Cardinals to serve the nation, but for $24k, the school is doing the opposite.
• Leland has 3000 students, if every student would donate $8, then it can cover the $24k.
• pledge of $1k from a Realtor Therese Swan, and many people raised hands for donation.
• Property values. Therese Swan said that the closest comparable example is was the high tension wires which brought a 10% decline in property value.
• Some parents: “I don’t want my kids in a microwave oven”; “I don’t want my kids to be guinea pigs”; “I don’t want my  kids to be a social experiment”;  “We will move if the tower goes up”.
• Ginger Tate read a letter from her doctor who warned that living near cell towers could cause cancer.
• Jeannette Chock: cell towers were dangerous, prone to toppling over.  Graduated from Bret Harte, brought her daughter back for school. Daughter also spoke.
• Roland Genise, a teacher at Bret Harte, “Let’s on the side of caution…, some school districts decided not to put up cell towers. We will not stop until the cell tower is rescinded.”
• Greg Braley: To risk 3,000 plus students’ health for the unknown health effects of a cell tower over $2,000 a month is just an absurd tradeoff in my mind.
• There are differences in: definitely safe; no reason to believe unsafe; not yet proved to be unsafe;
• Recent study: http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/22/study-cell-phones-cause-changes-in-brain-activity/print/

After the meeting, Dr. Vincent Mathews said: “My position is, I still feel the towers are safe from the research we’ve done”.

OK, let’s raise some money: 1. If the contract is canceled, then the money will go to the school; 2. If the project is not rescinded, then we will use the money to take legal action against the school district. The school district will have to pay their lawyers, thus they will not get the $24k, less incentive for Vincent Mathews to go ahead. The next school district meeting will be on May 5.

The school will get $24k, but what is the cost of the parents?:

• move away, how much money?
• stay and pay property tax, but send kids to private school.
• the quality of the school goes down, property value decreases.
• It is likely the kids will not die during the 7 years at Bret Harte and Leland. The effect of tower may be only secondary effect, thus they may not die in college either. The college will cost a lot of money to the parents and the society. What if they die right after college?  If just one kid dies after college but before they can contribute to the society, then that $24k really  seems to be insignificant.