Jan 11 2008
Riverside Elementary = Cancer??
A few months ago, we (the parents of children who attend Riverside Elementary) were fighting to keep our school open.
Now, there is another concern about our school..
First of all, I want to make it clear that this is what I’ve heard from other people. I do not have any actual facts. There has been some attention in the local newspaper, and even Global TV, but nothing is confirmed.
It seems that in the last decade (or so), there have been 9 teachers and 2 students that have been diagnosed with cancer while working or attending Riverside.. The most recent death due to cancer was last week; one of the teachers there developed brain cancer. She appeared to be fine in November, but now the school and the teachers family is mourning the loss..
Apparently, the BC Cancer Agency is going to be possibly investigating. But there seems to be a lot of confusion. On my old blog page (which I keep up, but no longer use), someone found on of my posts about the possiblilty of school closures, and left this comment..
“I read that the B.C. Cancer Agency is planning a study of the high rate of cancer at Riverside Elementary School in Maple Ridge. Before time and money is spent trying to prove a cancer cluster, an historical investigation of previous land-use of the school property and surrounding area needs to be done. Our organization has files of cancers and other illnesses at many schools that were built on top of closed dumps (landfills). Most closed dumps contain cancer-causing chemicals. A cancer study could take years. A title search of the property and researching old maps could be completed in days. Finding out now if Riverside Elementary School was built on or adjacent to an old dump may save lives.
Janice R. England
People Investigating Toxic Sites
toxicsites.org
toxicsites@hotmail.com
I’m not sure why I received this comment, since I’m in no decision making position at the school, but they definately raised an interesting point. Has anyone checked about the history of the land?
A couple days ago, my wife took our 6 year old daughter to ballet. While my wife was waiting for her, she was talking to another parent. This other parent said to my wife, “I can’t believe that you haven’t pulled your daughter out of that school”.
My wife e-mailed the principal of the school. She asked the principal “as a principal and a mother” if there should be some concern at this point. The Ms. Daley replied that at this point there isn’t enough actual facts to know if there should be a concern.
At this point, I’m not sure what to think. It could be a very strange coincidence. These sort of things happen. My understanding that these people who have had cancer varied in the types.
At this point I do know that the matter is being looked into. In an e-mail to my wife, she said,
“I do know that the district does have a meeting with Dr. Nuh Le from the BC Cancer Agency next week. Once recommendations have been made an action plan will be further finalized.”
We will be closely watching what happens.
Not to downplay ANY cancer deaths/diagnoses, but I’m sure that 2 students over the course of ten years is a VERY small percentage of the overall number of students that have passed through the doors of that school…if the number were 20 or 200, I’d be more inclined to say, “Aha! A pattern!”
The figure of 9 teachers is indeed a bit more alarming, but this too prompts several questions. For example, did any of the nine teachers have a family history of cancer? Did any of them partake in lifestyles associated with cancer? How old was each teacher? Did all 9 teachers die of brain cancer; what types of cancer were they? The list of questions goes on…
The answers to these questions may already be known, and merely not covered in your blog entry; they may in fact not be known, and obviously further investigation is necessary.
In the meantime, I’m sure the fear-mongering demonstrated by the other ballet parent is EXACTLY what we should do.
I assume that you mean that we SHOULDN’T be fear-mongering..
I agree.. There are a lot of unknowns. Please read the next post titled Riverside Elementary – Update!
Yup, the last line should have included the tags
I have a daughter at Riverside and watched the global coverage. My first thought was why they would air this story, I just got off the phone with someone at global and asked her exactly that. My point to her was that putting out a story like that creates alot of fear and uncertainty, the story did not seem to be in the publics best interest and seemed to be weak in substance. My other concern was the timing of such a story and it’s source. I hope to hear back from someone on this and look forward to hearing about any real study of this situation as I am like everyone else, concerned for my child’s safety above all else.