Mimi Johnson and two other moms met with the Forum Dec. 19, in a Zoom call, to speak their minds on the recently permitted Vertical Bridge cell tower, to be installed at the top of Nucla, less than 1,000 feet from the new multi-million dollar school. The group of moms currently have children in West End Public Schools District, but will withdraw them if the tower goes in, they say. According to them, there are 16 children set to leave, but there are likely more and could be as many as 50.
Johnson told the Forum she’s paying attention to a news story, out of Missouri, that broke in May, which tells of a cluster of cancer cases, after a 120-foot cell tower was put on a school campus. Johnson said the technology affects humans on a cellular level, and their blood.
She said she has research-based science and sent the Forum some scholarly journal articles to sort through. One journal article is from the University of Virginia’s law school and does state “it is far from clear that the FCC standard is actually safe,” referring to safe levels of radiation, which were set in the late 1990s, though technology has advanced rapidly in the last 25 years. It also states “evidence indicating serious health risks continues to grow.”
Johnson is now beginning the talks of an alternative school, called the Outlaw Academy, where moms won’t necessarily teach a curriculum, but homeschool together and share resources.
Jessica Comer, on the Zoom meeting call, was homeschooled as a child, until she entered college at 16. She said she and her husband are managing a ranch in the West End, and her preference is to keep her kids in school. Still, she will pull them when the tower is built, because she doesn’t think it’s safe.
Katey Herland told the Forum the cell tower issue is a world-wide one, and there isn’t enough research study for the public to see the results. She added that what’s happening in Nucla is happening in various rural American places, and corporations strong-arm small communities.
“No research says it’s harmless,” Herland said. “So much out there gives negative results … to plants, microbes, humans, all living things.”
Herland was also home-schooled as a child, and she’s not afraid of pulling her children out of West End Public Schools, if and when the tower is up. But, she’d like to think that what’s happening now could be used as an opportunity for change. She said if people were educated on the issue, had access to information on what radiation does to living things, they might just come together and help stop or move the tower. She wants to nudge others and get them to think.
“We could effectively empower other real communities to do the same,” she said.
Herland also said she welcomes anyone in the community to come and speak with her. She said she wants to have real conversations about the issue.
Comer said she agreed. She said she wants people in the West End to be informed, so they can make a choice. She said knowledge is important.
There are other moms affiliated with Johnson, Comer and Herland, but they wish to remain anonymous at this time, as they own businesses in the West End and have concerns about the future, since the cell tower issue in Nucla has appeared to divide people.
The Forum reminded the group of moms that a cell tower was also built in Norwood several years ago. Herland said she believes that tower is 4G, and Nucla’s will be 5G. Norwood School was just awarded a BEST grant and passed a bond though. Their new facility will be built on the other side of town, even farther from the existing tower.
