Higley to air cell phone tower plan

Apr. 22—The public will be able to weigh in on a proposal to plant a cellular phone tower on the grounds of Sossaman Middle School — which critics say endangers the health of students and staff.

Verizon Wireless' request for an easement at the campus in Queen Creek ran into a roadblock at the April 3 Higley Unified School District Governing Board meeting, which unanimously agreed to table the issue. HUSD would receive $24,000 a year for allowing the tower.

HUSD spokeswoman Jessica Bautista said last week that the district was coordinating a meeting with Verizon, although no date has been set yet for it.

"Given my experience in the health freedom world, I've been deeply involved in advocating for protecting our citizens from potential health risks," said Governing Board Vice President Anna Van Hoek, who called for a town hall. "One of those risks is posed by electromagnetic fields emitted by sources like cell towers.

"These concerns are critical to address especially when considering placing such towers on school grounds."

Supporters of health freedom, or medical freedom, basically oppose government interference in personal or family-health choices, such as the case with COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Van Hoek contended at the board meeting that "significant" data indicates exposure to such towers leads to symptoms such as headaches, fatigue and sleep disturbances.

"Additionally, there are well-founded concerns regarding the potential long-term effects of radio frequency radiation on health with some studies suggesting possible links to increased cancer risk, notably brain cancer."

She added that it was especially alarming considering children's developing bodies may be more susceptible to radiation.

"I would hate for something awful to happen to any one of our children or staff," Van Hoek said. "So to be able to take in that input from the community is important to me and for $24,000 a year, I mean it's nice to get money but at the detriment of our community, no. That's not worth it to me. If it was for a million bucks it would not be worth it."

Van Hoek also admonished the district for putting the agreement on the consent agenda without allowing for comments from community members.

According to HUSD, a former district employee in 2020 approved the agreement with Verizon, which has been working to complete the necessary requirements before installation. It was discovered the agreement was never approved by the board, hence its appearance on the April agenda.

Valeri Marsh, director of Arizonans for Safe Technology, was the sole public speaker on the issue at the meeting. "For the past seven years I've been involved in public education on the health effects of pulse modulated microwave radiation," she said. "Verizon and other telcos will tell you that this is non-ionizing radiation so it's safe."

In reality, it's not, she maintained, handing the board an image that she described as DNA damaged by non-ionizing radiation.

"That damage is from two hours of exposure to that radiation from a cell phone," Marsh said. "The tower will emit radiation 24/7 day-in and day-out."

She said that after just two hours of exposure led to genetic damage and memory impairment.

"I could talk for hours about the documented health effects, including cancer, autism, cognitive issues, learning impairment, decreased fertility, sleep disruption and a host of others," she said. "A cell tower placed dangerously close to the students and staff you are charged with protecting will also affect all of the neighbors in your vicinity.

"You will receive $24,000 per year but you will be personally liable for damages from health effects. This radiation is proven to cause cancer." Neighboring Gilbert Public Schools collects $203,000 annually from 12 cell-tower agreements, a district spokeswoman said.

CFO Tyler Moore said the cell tower is proposed for placement near a concession stand between two fields in the middle of the campus."

"This would be placed 80 feet up on that light pole much like our other cell towers that are at Gateway (Pointe Elementary) and Williams Field High School," he said.

President Michelle Anderson said she supported Van Hoek's request to table the issue.

"I want more information," the high school science teacher said. "If it truly is something of a concern because cell towers are everywhere and communication is now space to ground, let's hear it. I'm OK with tabling it and getting some more information and hearing truly from our community."

Board member Tiffany Shultz also threw her support behind tabling the agreement.

"Of course, I don't want to put children at risk," she said. "And if that means doing a little extra then that's great.

"I just also wonder we do use cell phones on a daily basis. If these people are concerned about this are they also not letting their children use cell phones?"

Van Hoek also raised the concern that she was contacted from people who said that they emailed their concerns with the cell tower on the day of the meeting but were blocked by the district from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. This led to a lengthy back and forth by the board on the topic.

Interim Superintendent Sherry Richards responded that IT was looking into why some emails were not getting through. She said that she personally received a "whole bunch" of emails and some she forwarded said suspicious.

Board member Amanda Wade noted that "lot of them had videos and websites, which is also part of the reason they get filtered out to avoid phishing."

"I received emails all day," Wade said. "So I do recognize that these types of things happen."

Wade also pointed out that Van Hoek stressed the importance of hearing from the community yet a good portion of the emails that she received were not even from people living in Maricopa County.

"Somebody who lives in Tucson or Prescott is irrelevant to that specific conversation," Wade said.

She said if the board continued to talk about the issue, it needed to get more information, including looking at valid studies. Wade said some of the information emailed to the board weren't supported.

"There was no explanation on where they got this data, how many people they got it from," she said, adding that from her perspective, HUSD "routinely makes decisions that are for the safety and well-being of our students."

Board member Kristina Reese also expressed concerns with the emails that came from outside the district.

"I do have issues receiving emails from people from Prescott Valley, Tucson," Reese said. "I don't know that I saw any from any of our community members like that are actually local that are in that area."

That said, she said it was clear that there was an organized "call to action" on the item.

"So our board packet went live at 5 p.m. yesterday and by 5:03 I was already receiving emails so people knew it was on our board packet," Reese said. "There was already a call to action for us to get inundated with emails from people who aren't even in our area. So obviously it was sent to groups, political groups (and) regular groups.

"I can't put merit into emails I'm receiving from all over the state on a call to action request versus people who it's going to impact."

Van Hoek said she found it interesting the comments that the board shouldn't consider people "that are not within our immediate constituency."

She said that when the district put together the citizens committee to consider a bond and override, "there was a request to allow people that didn't live in our district to be able to be part of the bond committee just because their kids come here but they live in Pinal County.

"We can't have one way and not the other."

Van Hoek urged them not to discount the information they received.

"There were emails from professionals who deal with this on a daily basis, that are physicians that deal with it," she said.

As for Reese's charge that there was an orchestrated effort to oppose the cell tower, Van Hoek said she had called a friend to get information and that person "obviously put out a call for action."

"These are people that care about the health of children," she said. "It doesn't matter what school it is. They will reach out to provide information in order to save and protect the health of children.

"I'm so sorry that that bothers you but the fact that these people care for the health of children should speak volumes and the information they provide is also valuable."