Northern Virginia Bureau Reporter David Culver talks with parents concerned about plans to put up a cell tower on the grounds of the school their children attend.
A group of parents in Fairfax County, Virginia are protesting plans for a cell phone tower to go up at a public elementary school.
Some mothers and fathers of students at A. Scott Crossfield Elementary School in Herndon said they are worried the tower would be a danger to the health of their children because it would be built near the school's playground.
"[The tower] would expose our kid to long-term radiation very close to where there is a permanent population," said parent Randy Griffin.
Renderings from Milestone Communications confirm the tower would go near the playground.
The proposed construction of a tower is to fill a gap in Verizon Wireless coverage, but parents said they have had no Verizon service issues in the area.
“It’s a huge amount of unknowns, it’s a concern that Fairfax County Public Schools seems to be putting their revenue and their business relationships ahead of all the kids,” said Lisa Namerow, whose son will start kindergarten at the school next year. “We’re not only concerned for Crossfield’s kids, we’re concerned for all of Fairfax County kids, especially the youngest of them all - at elementary schools.”
Namerow and other parents are asking the school system to step in and deny the proposal. “They have control over what happens here, so if they want to withdraw the application - which is what we’re asking for - they have that power.”
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"The applicant provided written notice of the application to all property owners adjacent to the site, as required under the FCPS regulation, and a community meeting was held by the applicant. Radiation emitted by cell towers is well below the limits set by the FCC," Fairfax County Public Schools told News4 in a statement.
Crossfield would be the 35th school in the county to have a cell phone tower since 1996. Parents fear if this latest plan is approved, cell phone towers will be built at dozens more schools in the county.
