A high school newspaper in Muncie, Indiana found asbestos in several rooms and stirred a controversy by reporting that fact.
During its investigation, the newspaper collected samples form a science room and form an art classroom and had them tested. Both samples tested positive for asbestos.
School officials have accused the students — and the newspaper’s advisor — of “unauthorized disturbance of encapsulated asbestos” and notified parents and teachers that the two classrooms will remain closed until they can be tested.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen video The advisor has been threatened with loosing her job for allowing the story to break.
School officials note that the high school does contain asbestos products — as do many buildings built before 1979 — but they are safely “encapsulated” and would remain inert unless disturbed.
Press freedom experts contacted for a story that appeared in the Muncie daily newspaper, the Star Press, argue that the asbestos was found in ceiling tiles.
“… students touch those tiles all the time. They jump up and touch it. They throw pencils at it. They hang streamers from it during Spirit Week. So maybe it might not be a bad idea to tell students not to interact with the tile if the tile is all that stands between you and cancer. You might tell them that,” said Adam Goldstein, an attorney for the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va.
Asbestos exposure can lead to several forms of cancer and there is no safe level of exposure. The most pernicious disease attributed to asbestos exposure is mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer. Symptoms often take 20-30 years to develop and by the time they do, it is usually too late for effective treatment.