Students Return To Beverly Hills High For First Time Since Arsenic Discovery

BEVERLY HILLS (CBSLA.com) — Classes were underway Tuesday at Beverly Hills High School as part of the campus remained off-limits to students following the discovery of arsenic on the school's lacrosse field.

Officials secured the field with padlocks last Friday when state officials determined soil samples from an area on campus where construction was about to get underway came back with levels over the acceptable limit.

Additional tests were conducted in other areas of the campus. Those results are expected sometime Tuesday, which marked the first day students returned to class for the fall semester.

But according to KNX 1070's Jon Baird, the school's principal says "as far as he knows", other tests have turned up negative.

In addition to the arsenic, methane gas fields have been a concern on the campus for years, where there is still a functioning oil well that is
slated to close in Dec. 2016.

Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education President Brian David Goldberg says he understands there are concerns but assures proper action is being taken.

"When you're dealing with a 100-year-old campus and you're looking at doing a massive building project on that campus, there's lots of things that
we're going to find that we don't anticipate," Goldberg said.

The campus lacrosse field will be closed indefinitely until the problem has been resolved, according to district officials.

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