Students Return To OC School After Asbestos Concerns Shut Down Campus
HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Students Tuesday returned to an Orange County school for the first time in months after asbestos was discovered in classrooms last fall.
Children in second through fifth grades at Oak View Elementary School in Huntington Beach will be instructed in portable classrooms as crews continue to remove the cancerous minerals in the campus' main building.
Students were being bussed to nearby schools for class.
"Our portable do not contain any asbestos-containing materials. They've been cleaned, deep cleaned," said Superintendent Gus Balderas.
Kindergarten and first grade students will continue to study at other area schools for the rest of the year, officials said.
Oak View Elementary was one of three schools in the Ocean View School District to shut down in October 2014 after traces of asbestos were found in classrooms.
The campuses of Lake View and Hope View elementary schools remain closed.
The highly toxic mineral, which is a known cause of lung and mesothelioma cancer, was found at the schools last summer during a campus modernization project.
Parents said the school district has been slow to provide information and believe it's too late to eliminate the long-term risks.
"I'm very concerned, we won't know anything until they're 15 or 16 years old and they're 7 and 6 right now," said parent Diana Serano who is trying to get her two sons transferred out of Oak View Elementary.
The district said Tuesday that they were losing $40,000 to $50,000 in state funding weekly for the closed schools.
