Who is responsibly locally for Monroe school’s PCB contamination

Reading the Herald article on the Monroe Sky Valley Education Center victims’ lawsuit against Monsanto and its amoral, sociopathic, long-term touting of the safety of PCBs in fluorescent lighting, one question baffles me (“Judge halves $784M for women exposed to Monsanto chemicals at Monroe schools,” The Herald, April 23).

I read nothing about why these known, dangerous chemicals were allowed to leak all over this facility for years. If the rest of America was to have acted this way, tens of millions would be now suffering neurological damage. I worked in retail outlets in the ’80s and we had failing ballasts leaking black goo regularly. But we acted immediately and with caution. We knew about PCBs and acted accordingly.

The question I have is who was in charge of this educational facility and why was this abject neglect allowed to go on. Why has no one considered legally holding anyone accountable here? Its obvious that lawsuits always target deep pockets but what about holding anyone local responsible? It seems the true culprits in these tragedies were Monroe education system employees.

It may just be too hard of a pill to swallow that our elected officials can be irresponsible when we trust our feelings and vote for whom we like better. Belief in those we like and bias toward our tribes is often akin to a religion. Maybe that’s why The Herald didn’t even address this issue. But it’s obvious where to lay the lion’s share of the blame in this tragedy.

Rick Walker

Snohomish

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