Sunday, October 26, 2008

Mary Bell's Exchange with Tamalpais School Dist. Superintendent

And...the 'Flak' from the School District Superintendent
Are they all on the TAKE, or what?


Subject: Fwd: Article Recommendation (from mary bell): Artificial turf harbors potential health risks, including cancer

Hey folks!
It's not over until. . . . well, it's over!
m
Begin forwarded message:

From: Mary Swan Bell

Date: October 16, 2008 7:58:07 AM PDT
To: Nancy Alderman

Subject: Fwd: Article Recommendation (from mary bell): Artificial turf harbors potential health risks, including cancer

Hi Nancy,

The following was the response by our new high school superintendent, Laurie Kimbrel, to the editorial on artificial turf, printed yesterday in the Jolly Roger high school newspaper. How interesting that this revelatory response came on the heels of my positive and supportive note to her.

http://www.drakejr.com/all-stories/?currentPage=3

It would appear that this cogent and respectful critique is what has earned Drake High School the title of a California Distinguished School! Or, this response highlights the knee-jerk response that appears to be endemic in our Marin County educational system. It is somewhat disturbing that it is the student, and not the artificial turf company, who is the fall-guy in this matter.

Perhaps, EHHI would be interested in educating the superintendent, principal, teacher and editorial staff as to the inherent risks of placing artificial turf on school and community playgrounds.

Superintendent Laurie Kimbrel, Ed. D lkimbrel@tamdistrict.org

Principal Don Drake ddrake@tamdistrict.org,

Jolly Roger Teacher contact: Amity Hotchkiss ahotchkiss@tamdistrict.org


Student Editorial Staff Contact: http://drakejr.squarespace.com/contact/

Many thanks, Nancy!

Mary

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Kimbrel, Laurie"

Date: October 15, 2008 6:35:33 PM PDT
To: "Mary Swan Bell"

Cc: "Wright, John"

Subject: FW: Article Recommendation (from mary bell): Artificial turf harbors potential health risks, including cancer

Mary,
So interesting that you would send me this article. I just received
word from the teacher quoted in the article that he had been misquoted
and misunderstood. I believe he may even write a rebuttal because
absolutely incorrect information was attributed to him. In fact, he was
referring to an IJ article that relied on poor investigation. I think
we can conclude that this is very poor reporting as well.
Laurie



Laurie Kimbrel, Ed.D


Superintendent

Tamalpais Union High School District

(415) 945-3720

lkimbrel@tamdistrict.org


-----Original Message-----
From: Squarespace Services [mailto:services@squarespace.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 4:55 PM
To: Kimbrel, Laurie
Subject: Article Recommendation (from mary bell): Artificial turf
harbors potential health risks, including cancer

mary bell would like you to see the following article.

I thought you might be interested in this editorial by student
journalists at Drake High in San Anselmo. This is investigative
journalism at its best!

Mary Bell

Title: Artificial turf harbors potential health risks, including cancer
Link:
http://www.drakejr.com/all-stories/artificial-turf-harbors-potential-hea
lth-risks-including-can.html

1 comment:

Evan said...

Hi Patricia,
I'm the co-editor-in-chief of the Drake Jolly Roger. I'm glad to see that you've been reading our Web site; we will continue to cover the turf field controversy. May we print excerpts from this blog in our upcoming issue? You can contact me directly by e-mail at brooks[dot]ev[at]gmail[dot]com.