Wyandotte Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Catherine Cost said it likely cost "millions of dollars" to break a contract over a 5G cell phone tower on top of Washington Elementary School.
We've been covering the controversy over the tower since earlier this month, and last week, parents packed a board meeting with complaints over the tower.
In a letter to parents on Monday night, Cost said the board was approached by T-Mobile five years ago and approved the contract, but construction was delayed until this September and that's when the pushback began.
She said the district has looked into what would happen if they broke the contract with T-Mobile.
"The District would be sued by T-Mobile, and our insurance will not cover this. Based on the signed contract, our legal counsel has said we would be responsible for paying T-Mobile for damages, attorney fees, and court costs, which could be in the millions of dollars," she wrote. "These fees would come out of the general fund. That is why this impacts every family and every staff member, as there would be less available to the remaining classrooms an staff members."
Cost also said the district spoke with city leadership and explored other options like moving the tower, but said it would cost more than $1 million and T-Mobile had no interest in doing it.
According to the district, Site Safe, an outside organization, also provided a safety report on the tower. They conducted a model of Washington Elementary and took RF measurements.
"Due to the reduction levels discussed, the exposure levels on the school building rooftop, within the school building, and at any areas at ground level, including all of the school property grounds and playground, is well below the FCC's accepted General Public MPE Limit," the SiteSafe report said.
"These were all well, well below the legal limits, and would not cause harm to children," Cost wrote.
She said that T-Mobile would also notify the school before the tower is turned on, and when it is turned on, safety studies will be done with measurements inside and outside of Washington and shared with families.
The board is holding another public meeting on Tuesday, March 21 with a T-Mobile representative on site.
The FCC says there's no reason to believe it's a health hazard, but many parents claim they were not aware of this deal and now fear that the tower's radiation will be harmful to their children.
“It's in its infancy. We're scared. We're scared for our children," parent Michelle Hodgkinson said.
“We are uncomfortable with the unknown risks, throughout history, new technologies have been created and we learned the risks after the fact,” parent Nicole Zeld adds.
However, the American Cancer Society notes that there is no strong evidence exposure to cell towers has any noticeable health effects. But, they do say the towers also have not been proven absolutely safe.
The district is also giving parents and staff the option to transfer out of the school if they'd like. Families may work to initiate a transfer as part of school of choice starting April 3, 2023, and staff can also apply this spring.
