Protest Targets Condemned School

About 15 parents demonstrated in front of San Fernando Elementary School on Tuesday, protesting conditions at the quake-damaged south building.

Although the facility has been vacant since the 1994 Northridge temblor, parents said the condemned structure poses a danger to children and teachers working out of 10 portable bungalows on the school playground.

Parents are concerned the building could topple onto the bungalows in another earthquake or strong aftershock, said Juan Medrano, a parent and former PTA president at the school.

Cracks in interior walls, gaps in floors and a sinking corner of the south building, Medrano said, are evidence of a weakened structure that should not be retrofitted, but demolished.

“We are protesting because this building is not safe,” Medrano said. “They should take the building down and build a new building. Why put our children at risk?”

School Principal Mary Mendoza said she is just as anxious as parents to see the building repaired and school operations returned to normal.

“I want to get everything rolling again too,” Mendoza said. “In the meantime, we are moving ahead, focusing on the positive and not just sitting around waiting for things to happen.”

In addition to the school building conditions, Medrano said parents were upset that a portable bungalow was used to store ballast, a box that holds oil that could contain PCBs, a potentially hazardous substance found inside lighting fixtures.

The ballast was temporarily stored in a sealed container and placed in the portable classroom as part of a lighting removal project by Brayer Electric Co., said Eric Nasarenko, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Facilities Services Division.

“Some students transported school supplies to the portable classroom,” Nasarenko said. “After learning that the students were going briefly in and out of the classroom, the school principal quickly suspended any entry into the building.”

The sealed container was removed from campus Tuesday, Nasarenko said. No leaking or contamination occurred, he said.

San Fernando Elementary School was among the five San Fernando Valley schools hardest hit by the earthquake and is one of the last yet to be repaired.