[LCSD] The Asbestos Blame Game!

Shortly after I posted my little rant about Rick Alexander and asbestos, I received an email from a reader:

A note on Asbestos in schools- when you attended school in Lebanon, all of your schools contained asbestos. It was Jim Robinson who directed the custodians 4 years ago (right before he illegally contracted them out...) to 'deep strip' the 200's [at the high school] while school was still in session.

This lead to the release of asbestos into both the air and waste water. OSHA investigated and documented this release, and directed the District to 'inform in writing' all affected employees (domain of OSHA) of their 'exposure'. The district never complied, rather they appealed their fine, got it reduced, and I am guessing just paid the fine.

Ouch. This does not reflect well on Jim Robinson if it's true (and at this point I have no reason disbelieve it).

This is also not the first time I've heard this. I was unable to find any information on the Democrat-Herald or Express websites, but I started looking around the Oregon OSHA website and lo and behold, something. I'm just not sure what.

For example, this is from the incident that I think best tracks with the email I received (though I had to ditch the formatting):

Violation Summary:

Three (3) serious violations
Initial Penalty 1500
Current Penalty 450

Each violation has a link; all are labeled 'asbestos'. The dates on the violation are from June and July of 2004.

There is also a record under each of initial penalty and a notation that suggests a settlement - again, this tracks exactly with what is in the email.

The problem is that the notations are full of jargon and ID numbers instead of actual words. But the timing is right.

While this does not in any way excuse Rick Alexander's behavior, it does suggest he's not the only one who needs to go to detention.

Oh, and if you go here and search for Lebanon, you get several results for the LCSD above and beyond the one I cited above.