Schools and Farms: A Risky Mix

Amid our concern over last week’s report that a cloud of pesticide had drifted onto the campus of Mound Elementary School and sickened several people, we appreciate the vigilant response from regulators and the community.

Two children went home and dozens of other students and teachers complained of dizziness, headaches and nausea following the early morning application of the insecticide Lorsban on a lemon orchard across the street.

Inspectors from the county agricultural commissioner’s office stopped the application within 20 minutes of receiving a call from the school and took samples to analyze for pesticide drift.

That same office is working to arrange a meeting between the school and the grower to emphasize the importance of not applying such chemicals when children are present.

This sort of quick response and clear communication is a better response to this bad situation than we have sometimes seen in the past. If all parties make extraordinary efforts to be sensitive to their neighbor, that should help make it possible for farms and schools to coexist.

But there’s no question that both the farmer and the school would be better off if they weren’t so close together.

We urge the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to bear that in mind Wednesday when the Oxnard Elementary School District once again seeks permission to bust a greenbelt and build the Juan Soria School on a site surrounded by working farmland. The district’s own school-siting committee has identified other locations where an incident like this one would be less likely to occur.