Washington State School District Offers $34M in Toxic Exposure Case

SEATTLE (AP) — The Monroe, Washington, School District offered a $34 million settlement to students and parents exposed to toxic chemicals on a public school campus.

The Seattle Times reports the district proposed the settlement in November under court seal, preventing the public from seeing the offer, but the $34 million figure appears in a separate court document obtained the newspaper.

In publicly available court documents, the school district doesn’t accept responsibility for hazardous conditions on the Sky Valley Education Center campus, which were detailed in a recent investigation by The Seattle Times and ProPublica.

Instead, the district defended its cleanup efforts on campus, saying it acted appropriately to remove toxicants and inform parents.

Records show the school district was slow to clear out toxic material from the Monroe campus, even as pressure from parents and staff escalated and dozens reported illnesses.

As early as 2014, Monroe School District officials found a mixture of harmful conditions, including poor air ventilation and the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a banned, human-made chemical that the Environmental Protection Agency has linked to some cancers and other illnesses.

More than 200 parents, teachers and students filed a series of lawsuits against Monsanto, the chemical manufacturer of PCBs, for exposure to the toxicant at Sky Valley. Children and staff claim they became severely ill, reporting cancers, brain damage, hormonal problems and skin conditions.

Monsanto, which is now owned by Bayer, has gone to trial in two of the lawsuits, in which juries awarded 11 people a collective $247 million. Several others are awaiting trial.

The $34 million offer is the maximum allowed under the school district’s insurance policy “in order to protect (the Monroe School District’s) finances and its ability to continue operating,” according to a statement the district provided to the Seattle newspaper.

The district called the settlement a “prudent action under the circumstances.”

The Monroe School District, which serves about 6,000 children, has an annual budget of $93 million.