Eight Months After Discovery of TCE Under the McClymonds High Campus, the School has been Deemed Safe for Students and Staff to Occupy
Oakland – Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) leadership will hold a news conference on Friday, October 16, 2020, to discuss the final determination about the safety of McClymonds High School, which had to shut down during the spring semester because of a toxic chemical that was found in the groundwater under the school. One month before the world radically changed because of the Covid pandemic, OUSD decided to close the McClymonds campus to students and staff because of the discovery of trichloroethylene, or TCE, under the school. Now, eight months later, the school has been deemed safe to return to for all students and staff.
In the weeks that followed the February closure, McClymonds students were divided up and moved to several different campuses. In the meantime, District staff, along with a group of experts from Alameda County and the State of California worked to take samples all across the campus, especially inside the school buildings. On Friday, the District is publicly sharing that the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) says the testing shows the campus is safe for the school community to return to once everyone is able to go back to in-person teaching and learning at all schools.
District staff will also discuss the environmental injustices that have been perpetrated on the people of Oakland and all urban areas for far too long, and how the TCE situation at McClymonds is emblematic of those injustices.
Stay tuned for the news conference livestream here.
About the Oakland Unified School District
In California’s most diverse city, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is dedicated to creating a learning environment where “Every Student Thrives!” More than half of our students speak a non-English language at home. And each of our 81 schools is staffed with talented individuals uniting around a common set of values: Students First, Equity, Excellence, Integrity, Cultural Responsiveness and Joy. We are committed to preparing all students for college, career and community success.
To learn more about OUSD’s Full Service Community District focused on academic achievement while serving the whole child in safe schools, please visit OUSD.org and follow us @OUSDnews.
