LAGUNA BEACH : Parents Protest Plans for Microwave Tower
More than 75 angry parents protested the planned installation of a microwave tower at El Morro Elementary School before the school board last week.
After listening to pleas to permanently shelve plans for the 90-foot tower, Laguna Beach Unified School District board members told parents that they would reconsider the issue on Jan. 24.
“At our meeting on the 24th, we’ll determine what action the board will take,” said Board Chairman Timothy D. Carlyle.
A group of detractors of the proposed AirTouch Cellular tower calls itself Parents for the Elimination of the Schoolyard Tower (PEST).
Susie Campbell, who said her husband contracted cancer from exposure to microwave radiation six years ago, told board members she believes that “the microwave tower is bad for our health. I know it’s already made a lot of us parents sick to our stomachs.”
Last year, the school board agreed to let AirTouch Cellular--then known as PacTel--lease grounds at the school for $18,000 a year to install the tower. Shortly after it was built, the tower was dismantled when parents roared in protest about the possible danger of microwave transmissions.
AirTouch representatives and District Supt. Paul M. Possemato have said the tower poses no health risk to children.
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