Asbestos forces Huntington Beach students to classes on other campuses

Students from three Huntington Beach elementary campuses who have been unable to attend school for days because of the risk of exposure to asbestos will return to class Thursday, but in many cases those classes will be in other districts.

The decision to bus the students to other schools was announced at a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the offices of the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach.

More than 1,300 students from Oak View and Hope View elementary schools will go to seven schools in four districts — including Ocean View, Westminster, Savanna and Centralia — across Orange County.

Nearly 400 students from Lake View Elementary will temporarily attend Harbour View Elementary and Westmont Elementary, both in Huntington Beach.

“We’re hoping to open school with a lot of happy faces” Thursday, said district spokesman Tom DeLapp.

The district is working to remove asbestos above the ceiling tiles at Lake View, Oak View and Hope View. The process could take more than two months, but the district is aiming to expedite the process, DeLapp said.

Test results at Lake View showed asbestos in two classrooms, the Huntington Beach Independent reported.

At Hope View, a sample taken in one classroom contained a single asbestos fiber collected under a tile that appeared to have been drilled into in order to run television wires, said Cary Ruben, a certified industrial hygienist.

The district has not yet released test results for Oak View Elementary.

When the three schools were built decades ago, asbestos — a mineral — was used as fireproofing on metal beams above the ceilings. Over time, asbestos dust began to fall from the beams and settle on classroom ceiling tiles, district records show.

Though the presence of asbestos that hasn’t been disturbed isn’t harmful, it can become a hazard when high levels of the dust become airborne. Inhaling high levels of asbestos over a long period of time can cause lung disease, experts say.

Parents became concerned about two weeks ago that their children might have been exposed to carcinogenic asbestos dust in their classrooms while the district modernized 11 school sites in a project that began in July.

The district and Cal/OSHA are investigating whether asbestos was being abated after the first day of school.

“These were the three schools that had [construction activity] that was occurring after school started,” DeLapp said. “In our abundance of caution, we’ve decided to close the schools for abatement.”

Oak View and Hope View students will have been out of school for eight days come Thursday. Lake View students will have missed six days. Ocean View School District officials have not said how they plan to make up the lost days of instruction.

“Our primary goal is to get kids back in classrooms,” DeLapp said.

Fry is a Times Community News staff writer.

Follow the reporter on Twitter: @HannahFryTCN