RESERVE, La. (AP) – A school board in southeast Louisiana voted Thursday to close a predominantly black elementary school next to a petrochemical plant that is facing multiple lawsuits related to its high pollutant emissions.
Denka Performance Elastomer LLC produces synthetic rubber neoprene used for wetsuits, laptop sleeves and other common products. The plant emits the likely carcinogen chloroprene at such high levels that it puts the surrounding majority-black community at unacceptable risk of cancer, according to a 2023 federal complaint filed against Denka on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA warned that the several hundred students who attend the 5th District Elementary School, about a quarter mile (0.40 kilometers) from Denka’s facility, are among those at increased risk of cancer.
According to the federal complaint, air monitoring consistently shows that chloroprene concentrations in the air around Denka’s facility are up to 15 times recommended levels for lifetime exposure over an extended period of time. The EPA says Denka’s chloroprene emissions are the reason surrounding communities in St. John the Baptist Parish have the highest estimated cancer risk in the nation.
The Biden administration has invested billions in the EPA to address environmental justice issues and placed Denka at the center of its efforts to hold industrial polluters accountable for their impact on minority neighborhoods. Many of these gated communities lie along a heavily industrialized 85-mile (137-kilometer) stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, officially called the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor and commonly referred to as “Cancer Alley” by environmental groups. ”
The plant’s parent company, Tokyo-headquartered Denka, fought an April EPA order to dramatically reduce its plant’s chloroprene emissions within 90 days, drawing support from Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. The case remains pending in federal court. A Denka spokesman said the plant had “significantly reduced” its chloroprene emissions and that the EPA had relied on “biased” science. Denka’s fence line air monitoring report for June shows chloroprene emissions continued to be four times higher than EPA-required standards. Denka’s spokesman said the EPA was relying on “an overly conservative risk assessment.”
In June, the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund filed a separate petition with the school board to close the elementary school, saying the board had clear evidence of the health risks Denka posed to students. The St. John the Baptist school board is one of dozens across the South that has been under desegregation for decades.
The Legal Defense Fund argues that the school board is violating desegregation laws by disproportionately exposing black students to Denka pollution, even though there are alternative schools they could attend elsewhere in the district and, in many cases, closer to their homes. The school board’s director of risk management, Alvarez Hertzock III, said the district takes the issues raised in the lawsuit “extremely seriously.”
In several public hearings held by the school board earlier this year to discuss the closure of the 5th District Elementary School, some parents and teachers spoke emotionally against dissolving the close-knit school community.
“We want to stay together,” District 5 Elementary School Principal Rajean Butler said at a Jan. 31 meeting, adding that her own child is enrolled at the school. “Knowing that they’re going to be torn apart just breaks my heart.”
“I created a space where every child is loved as my own,” Butler said as a group of community members stood beside her. “I speak from the bottom of my heart and say: Please don’t do this for our babies, our families. I just can’t imagine them being in a place where they aren’t loved.”
Months later, after a tense discussion, the school board voted 7-4 to close the school starting with the 2025-2026 school year. The several hundred students currently attending the 5th District elementary school would be sent to two other nearby locations.
Shawn Wallace, school board president, said the board made its decision to close the 5th District Elementary School solely for financial reasons due to low enrollment numbers across the district.
But Nia Mitchell-Williams, another board member, said the ongoing desegregation lawsuit was “the real elephant in the room” and put pressure on the board to close the school before a federal judge took action instead.
Raydel Morris, the board member who represents the 5th District Elementary School District, opposed closing the school because he said it would lead to another dilapidated building in a black community.
He also said the board’s proposed solution would not aid meaningfully end most students’ exposure to Denka’s pollution by transferring many to another school, East St. John Preparatory, that has less than 1 .61 kilometers from the facility.
“We take them from the front door and put them in the back yard,” Morris said.
Victor Jones, an attorney with the Legal Defense Fund, said the school board delayed far too long and should remove the students from the 5th District elementary school immediately, rather than the following school year.
“The board has an ongoing commitment to operating healthy and safe facilities for children,” Jones said. “Every day that school stays open, these children remain at risk.”
Jones added that students relocated to the school near Denka remain at risk from the toxic emissions.
School district Superintendent Cleo Perry said he is not concerned about the potential health consequences for students who were relocated to East St. John Preparatory. He said the board is now focused on the logistics of school transfers.
“When you look at consolidating schools, it’s very heartbreaking, it’s hard on families, students and teachers alike, so our goal right now is to work with our community to provide the best transition possible,” he said .
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Brook is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on social platform X: @jack_brook96
