QUESTION FAKE GRASS in LGUSD.

Students at LGUSD's Lexington Elementary  practice, as explained at ibo.org , being knowledgeable,  open-minded, reflective, critical thinkers. As educators and parents, we know that "everybody else is doing it" is not a valid justification for anything. And, just like we all tell our kids:   In actuality , it is NOT true that "everybody else is doing it"... How does that lesson apply here? Schools and municipalities are NOT all following the masses, succumbing to sales pitches, and proceeding with artificial turf installations. Some are pausing to ask themselves if this is really a wise choice?  Especially in light of expert insights that were not yet available back when  other schools and municipalities chose to install them ?   For example, in 2005 when the Los Gatos Saratoga Union High School District (LGSUHSD) installed one of its first artificial turf fields, it was not widely known how much lead was in some of the fields.  As another example, in...

To conserve water costs, should we rob kids of equitable access to nature?   Certainly given increasingly-dense urban housing in Los Gatos, not every child's family is afforded their own private land from which to benefit from daily exposure to nature.   As a community working together to share natural resources, is THE place to severely restrict water the shared field? A field that may serve as the only regular daily exposure to nature that hundreds of our kids in dense, urban developments get? No. This is wrong. This constitutes an equity issue. LGUSD Equity Action Team and the many other Los Gatos community members that value equity, it's time to be an upstander for those children with less privilege. A tweet from LGUSD's superintendent about the district's commitment to equity. Elementary school play fields and public parks are absolutely the outdoor green spaces that make sense to judiciously water. In fact, this could very well be part of the rationale San Jos...

Two of the experts:  Dr. Graham Peaslee ( i mage from  nd.edu ) ,  Concurrent Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Professor of Physics, University of Notre Dame   and Kyla Bennett (image from peer.org ),  Director of Science Policy at  PEER PFAS chemicals ("forever chemicals" being banned in various products) are just one of the major concerns related to toxicity of artificial turf.   Below, Dr. Graham Peaslee explains in detail why the PFAS in artificial turf should be a major concern.   T he implications for children's contact with the "grass" fibers is yet unknown, but what IS known is that they could contaminate our waterways and contaminate our drinking water . Dr. Kyla Bennett speaks after Dr. Peaslee to further explain. PFAS has been found in all the fields they have tested.   Dr. Bennett refutes one of the industry experts' assertions that PFAS are safe.   Dr. Bennett concludes with: " I do not understand the sentime...

Image of plastic turf dumped near a wetland from a coalition in a town that now has a moratorium on artificial turf installations . Yes, this is the same Dr. Debbie Tatro that has  taken issue with the artificial turf safety assertions provided by LGUSD's consultant , David Teter. Here is Dr. Tatro's letter to the LGUSD school board:

Image from student Ryan Basso's " The Balance of Opinion " LGUSD district management staff  continue to insist artificial turf is safe d espite assertions from experts and government agencies that it is  premature to conclude artificial turf is safe. LGUSD's conclusion of safety is based, seemingly entirely, on the word of the sole consultant they hired explicitly to provide safety reassurances, David Teter.   Why are district management staff: neglecting to seek out and consider the input of at least one of the  experts that finds it  premature to conclude artificial turf is safe? failing to acknowledge concerns that clearly continue to be held by government agencies?  failing to acknowledge the narrow context of Teter's product analysis? so willing to adopt Teter's advice knowing that not only was  he hired by the artificial turf industry to get  one of our state agencies  to dismiss its concerns, he actually  failed  to do so?...

Image from nasa.gov . With climate change, heat waves are becoming more frequent, more intense, and longer lasting. As humans replace natural ground cover and vegetation with artificial materials (like roofs, pavements, and synthetic turf), these surfaces significantly change how the land absorbs and releases energy. These surfaces contribute to the "urban heat island effect", the phenomenon where developed areas get hotter than nearby rural areas. Additional air conditioning is required to counter-balance the increased temperatures, thereby increasing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. This is a vicious cycle. As climate change pushes many cities towards dangerous temperatures, it's important we retain living landscapes to mitigate excessive heat. Even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirms that "elevated temperatures from heat islands can affect a community’s environment and quality of life in multiple ways: Compromise...

The Story of Stuff  explains "Externalized Costs" in the video below. As apparent from the financials in the district presentation, artificial turf will cost the district at least a million dollars more than natural grass. While that's already a jaw-dropping amount of money, it does not even reflect the full true costs of artificial turf products. This often goes unacknowledged because true costs are not reflected on financial expense records. There are costs to artificial turf that neither the district nor the community will pay with cash from their pockets. These are called "externalized costs". These costs include the costs to environmental and public health and extend beyond LGUSD campuses. These costs are incurred and effect real people along the entire length of this product's lifecycle, from the toxic pollution that comes from harvesting of natural resources, through manufacture, through degradation over years of exposure to the elements and foot ...

Image from Mt. Sinai CEHC . The  Children’s Environmental Health Center of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai   strongly discourages artificial turf installations. While the letter below is addressed to another set of decision-makers in another community (yes, there are many communities across the country beseeching their electeds to take a pause before pulling this trigger), these points aren't specific to the community the letter is addressed to.

Posted with his permission, here is the message of an 11/9/21 letter to the LGUSD school board from a Daves Avenue parent... Dear Terese, Mrs. Mittleman, and all others concerned, Thank you for hosting the town hall session last night. I know a lot of work has gone into this by you and your team. Here are the thoughts I left the meeting with – first, 2 general notes about the process, and then 2 specific notes about the plans for Daves Avenue… [For those that don’t know me, I’m a designer (and licensed architect in 5 states) and a dad of 3 girls – one at Daves now and 2 more to follow in the years ahead.] General Notes Transparency - It would be great if the district’s designs could be posted at each of the schools for review by current parents, students, and even community members that may have future students. As is, the plans are hard to read and visualize (even for someone working in the architecture industry). Sadly, combining these issues with the lack of transparent communicatio...

Image from lohud.com article  about ACL tears on artificial turf becoming a youth sports "epidemic" A friend's school-age son here in Los Gatos has irreparably damaged both his knees ( torn both his ACLs,  anterior cruciate ligaments ) playing soccer, so it got me wondering what data there is on soccer injuries related to artificial turf. Here are some concerning findings: This study  set out to " analyze data to compare injury rates on artificial versus natural playing surfaces among high school athletes".  It reports high school athletes were  58 percent more likely to sustain an injury during athletic activity on artificial turf .   " Using UH Sports Medicine Institute's school-based electronic medical record (EMR) system, physician-researchers from University Hospitals,  Case Western Reserve University  and UH Sports Medicine Institute analyzed data collected by 26 high school athletic trainers during the 2017-2018 athletic seasons.  They...

Image from xqsuperschool.org 's advice on "How to write a letter to the school board". Posted with her permission, h ere is an 11/8/21 letter to the LGUSD school board from a Fisher parent... Dear Board Members, I read that you are discussing artificial turf for our Los Gatos school fields. I urge you to reconsider these plans and listen to the voices that lay out the detrimental factors of such a solution. This is a huge decision you are making, and as it seems at the moment, not one that is in favor of health and wellbeing of the people who use the lawn - our children in Los Gatos. The value of nature on our wellbeing and health is being researched more and more in our current times. The soothing effects on our mind, the boosting effects on our immune systems are only a few of the benefits. We don’t need to breed more allergies or autoimmune disorders in children. We don’t need to take away more calming materials and surfaces from our environments. Why would we deprive ...

Want to know what it's like to learn your children have been drinking contaminated water ? Communities like Flint as well as those that neighbor chemical companies can tell you. Image from cargofilm-releasing.com Researchers ask "Are Fluoropolymers Really of Low Concern for Human and Environmental Health and Separate from Other PFAS?"   The answer: " The evidence reviewed in this analysis does not find a scientific rationale for concluding that fluoropolymers are of low concern for environmental and human health. Given fluoropolymers’ extreme persistence; emissions associated with their production, use, and disposal; and a high likelihood for human exposure to PFAS, their production and uses should be curtailed except in cases of essential uses." So   we can't conclude PFAS is of "low concern for environmental and human health".  But is there even PFAS in artificial turf?  Yes... Consultant Dr. Laura Green has traditionally been someone the art...