The Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) and the Choice Foundation filed suit against Recovery School District (RSD) in Louisiana for failure to safely conduct asbestos removal at New Orleans charter school Lafayette Academy.
This lawsuit stems from a clean-up job gone wrong at Lafayette Academy. When a contractor was hired to remove asbestos from the school’s tile floors, rather than containing the cancer-causing material, they mishandled it, spreading the asbestos all over the building. In addition to the work of removing the asbestos from the building, the school also needed to replace contaminated computer equipment, textbooks, and office furniture. The cost of all of this was estimated between $6 and $7 million. The students in the school also needed to be housed in temporary locations until the asbestos was cleaned up.
OSPB and the Choice Foundation claim the contractors and the Recovery School District, which was in charge of the school at the time, were negligent in their handling of the asbestos and that they hid the contamination from OSPB, parents, and students.
Putting Louisiana Students at Risk
Asbestos was a common feature in construction through the 1980s because of its flame-retardant features. In these schools, the asbestos was used in the adhesive adhering tiles to the floors. . The materials became dangerous when contractors failed to contain the asbestos fibers during their work and spread them into areas where asbestos had never been used.
This isn’t the only school affected by asbestos in the Orleans Parish. Rosenwald Collegiate Academy has also been forced to relocate during asbestos clean-up, and McDonogh 35, which was supposed to temporarily house the Lafayette students, also needed an asbestos clean-up before it could be used. These added locations show that asbestos removal is an ongoing concern, and oversight is necessary anytime pre-1990 construction materials are disturbed in a parish school.
In addition to the problems with cleaning up the dangerous fibers, the Lafayette lawsuit claims serious negligence by RSD and the contractor, who OSPB says withheld a report on the asbestos contamination for over a year. During this time, students attended school like normal, and they, their parents, and school officials knew nothing about the asbestos contaminating the building and yard.
The Dangers of Asbestos Exposure
Asbestos has been shown to cause a highly fatal type of lung cancer called mesothelioma. The naturally occurring chemical contains fibers so small they are invisible to the naked eye and can easily become airborne. That means a person can breathe them in without ever knowing they’ve been exposed. Over time, these fibers work their way into lung tissue, the pleura (the protective lining around the lung) and even into the abdomen. They can cause cellular changes that lead to cancer in and around the lungs and abdomen. These cancers have a high mortality rate, with five-year survival rates ranging from 12% to 40%, depending on the location of the cancer, how early the cancer is found, and other health factors. The effects of asbestos exposure can take decades to appear, making it hard to know if the amount of exposure these students received will have lasting effects — we may not know for 50 to 60 years how these students are affected.
Mesothelioma cases are more likely to appear in people who worked around asbestos for a long time, such as those who were in the military, construction, or automotive industries when asbestos use was common. Because more exposure leads to more cases, it is possible that students exposed to asbestos in these contaminated schools may remain unharmed. But because it took so long for the school board to find out about the exposure, students were in a contaminated school for a year.
Filing a Mesothelioma Lawsuit with Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel
For a victim seeking justice, the challenges of a successful asbestos or mesothelioma lawsuit may seem daunting. We understand. At Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel, our Louisiana asbestos attorneys have held companies responsible for asbestos exposure accountable for decades. We’re ready to work one-on-one with you to understand your mesothelioma case and find justice. Email us or call at 855.966.1060 to discuss your potential lawsuit.
