CBS 42 "Deadly Deception" Continuing Reports on Walter Energy Contamination in North Birmingham Communities

Residents say Riggins School should have been closed--EPA agrees.

CBS 42 reporters Sherri Jackson and  Ken Lass reveal new chapters in the journey for justice of Collegeville and Harriman Park residents where residential properties and nearby schools have tested positive for high levels toxic contamination.

Community meetings were held recently in conjunction with Region 4 EPA that are giving rise to more troubling questions than good answers about why the Birmingham School Board, and Dr. Craig Witherspoon, did not inform the community of what they knew--these children and residents were (and still are) living with a silent killer.

In our last article on the "Deadly Deception" we included the initial report by CBS 42 that clearly showed Dr. Witherspoon being less than honest with these residents about what he knew and when he knew it. His words:

"We have met with the EPA and the levels are good....."

He knew that wasn't true, but it didn't stop him from evading accountability. He could have warned the residents a year before now, when he was provided copies of the EPA's test results that were anything but "good," and showed levels of contamination exceeding EPA levels by "300-600 times accepted levels" for cancer causing toxins, but he chose not to tell these residents what he knew.

Other school board officials described the tests as "indeterminate and inconclusive." There appears to be a united front of disinformation and denial by the school board. What was their motivation to keep quiet?

In the follow-up community meeting shown above, EPA Spokesperson Brian Holtzclaw has this to say about Riggins School, which he assumed was going to be closed on the basis of the results revealing dangerously high levels of toxins:

"Before the time it was going to be closed, I actually created a fact sheet just for Riggins School, you need to put fences up, you need to put signs all around, you need to educate all the students and faculty. I presumed they did circulate that (holding up the sheet he created with an ADEM logo on it) and send it to all the parents."

That never happened. Any of it. The school remained open and children continued to be exposed.

Adding insult to injury, the Carver School was closed, but not because of known contamination, it was closed to make way for a new school on the site for even younger children and renamed to Hudson K-8. Holtzclaw said he was "alarmed by this" and so are we.

Some of the residents stories are heartbreaking to listen to, and far too many of them of them have the same undercurrent--family members they have had to watch loved ones suffer and die from various cancers over the years. In the clip *"Contaminated Soil and Sickness" we hear from a few of them.
*(appears in the playlist section of the entire "Deadly Deception" series linked below)

CBS 42 goes on to say that "the only Birmingham school representative at the community meeting this month and last says he works in project management with Birmingham schools and he was unable to answer any of the questions."

Why didn't the Birmingham School Board send their representative spokesperson or Dr. Witherspoon to these follow-up meetings? Was it because of the initial report that was less than flattering to either of them? CBS 42 wasn't intentionally trying to show them in a bad light, they were reporting the facts of the story. Those facts, combined with Dr. Witherspoon and spokesperson Michaelle Chapman's own words, revealed the depth of deception both were engaging in to keep this whole affair quiet.

Making the call to send a "project management" employee who "was unable to answer any of the questions" did not occur in a vacuum and without, in our opinions, a deliberate intent to shield Dr. Witherspoon from any further scrutiny.

We're appalled at his behavior and applaud CBS 42 for continuing to follow this story in the interest of public service and not caving to the intense pressure they must be under from the Birmingham School Board, and possibly Birmingham Mayor William Bell, to just be quiet about the whole ordeal.

In this case, a parallel silent killer would be silence. CBS 42 understands that.

It's reprehensible that the Birmingham School Board and Dr. Witherspoon do not.

*Link to CBS 42 series "Deadly Deception"

 Subscribe in a reader