Court Hearing Today to Address Dangers Caused by Carcinogenic Air Pollution at Elementary School in St. John the Baptist Parish

Read a PDF of our statement here.

Today at 2 p.m., a federal district court in New Orleans will hear arguments on a motion to remove all children and faculty from Fifth Ward Elementary School in a desegregation case against the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board. The school is in the U.S. Census tract with the highest risk of cancer from air pollution in the United States, and the school board could place these children and their teachers in safer facilities at LaPlace Elementary School.

In June, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) filed a motion advocating for closure of Fifth Ward Elementary school, which serves more than 300 pre-kindergartners through fourth graders, most of whom are Black and Latinx. The school is located a few hundred feet from Denka Performance Elastomer, the only industrial plant in the nation that emits chloroprene, a chemical compound that environmental scientists have determined can cause cancer and genetic mutations, especially in small children who are exposed to it.

"The hazardous conditions at Fifth Ward Elementary necessitate the immediate closure of the school and relocation of the children to ensure they receive the safe, quality education they deserve," said Victor Jones, LDF Senior Counsel. "Scientific experts have warned the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board of the alarmingly high cancer risks and other health hazards that children at Fifth Ward Elementary are facing due to chloroprene exposure. Despite these warnings, the Board has failed to act. Instead, these little children, ages four to nine, are mandated to attend this school located in the danger zone. This is not a neighborhood school. The majority of these children are bused out of the safer neighborhoods where they live in order to attend this dangerous school. Meanwhile, there is plenty of room at a much safer school that is actually located closer to the homes of many of the children. For the safety and well-being of the children of Fifth Ward Elementary, we implore the Court to order the Board to close the school."

St. John the Baptist Parish is one of the most highly industrialized parishes in Louisiana with some of the highest rates of toxic substance releases and air emission events in the state, including the highest risk in the nation for cancer from air pollution. In October 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency submitted a letter to the Louisiana Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Quality recommending that children attending Fifth Ward Elementary be relocated away from Denka due to their significant risk of exposure to chloroprene.

LDF represents a class of Black children and their parents in St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools in an ongoing case to ensure all students, regardless of race, are afforded equal educational opportunities, including the opportunity to be educated in facilities that are healthy and safe. This decades-long federal school desegregation case was originally filed by LDF in March 1963.

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Legal Defense Fund (LDF) - Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights law organization. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957-although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.

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