Sierra Club Endorses de la Torre for School Board for Stance on Toxic Malibu Schools

From a press release:

The Sierra Club is pleased to announce its endorsement of Oscar de la Torre for Santa Monica-Malibu School Board.

The general election vote will determine who fills four seats on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education. Oscar de la Torre, one of the three incumbents seeking re-election, was the only candidate who received the required 2/3 vote at the various layers of the Sierra Club endorsement process.

“We are happy to be endorsing a principled champion who is willing to risk his political career in order to do what is right regarding the severe health problems related to the PCB contamination at three adjacent Malibu schools,” said Bruce Campbell, a 12-year member of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Political Committee who led the Interview / Endorsement Team for the Santa Monica-Malibu Schoolboard races.

“All board members except Mr. de la Torre go along with SMMUSD’s approach which, rather than testing and removing the source of the PCBs in the toxic ‘caulking’ (found at Malibu High School at up to 7400 times the legal limit of 50 parts per million), instead favor a focus on lawyers and public relations.”

Mr. de la Torre supports comprehensive testing for toxic contaminants and has proposed temporary classrooms to get people out of the toxic classrooms which have made so many ill at the Malibu schools.

Oscar has been working on socioeconomic and environmental justice issues for decades -- including mobilizing the community to picket with UFW co-founder Cesar Chavez. He founded a youth and family center to provide an alternative to gangs in Santa Monica’s Pico neighborhood, and helped to get a new park near the maintenance yard for the Expo rail line as “mitigation” for another burden on that community. Mr. de la Torre, who has served on the SMMUSD board since 2002, also wants to see environmental justice issues become part of the curriculum in SMMUSD schools.

David Haake, a physician who is chair of the West L.A. Group of the Angeles Chapter, said following the interview session, “Oscar de la Torre is exactly the kind of candidate that the Sierra Club should be endorsing.”

The Sierra Club is the nation’s largest and oldest grassroots community-based environmental organization. There are 13 regions within the Sierra Club’s Angeles Chapter which covers Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Both Santa Monica and Malibu are within the West L.A. Group’s territory.

All seven candidates for the SMMUSD Board of Education received Sierra Club questionnaires, and all but one returned them and were interviewed. The 4-member interview team unanimously recommended that Oscar de la Torre be endorsed, and then that recommendation was approved by three other Sierra Club groupings to garner the formal endorsement.

The Sierra Club urges those who care about the environment, as well as health and safety, to be sure to vote on or by election day, November 4th.

Besides this announcement of the Sierra Club endorsement of Oscar de la Torre for Santa Monica - Malibu School Board, the Sierra Club has also made other endorsements in regards to the Santa Monica ballot. The Sierra Club supports Yes on Measure LC, and No on Measure D (pertaining to the Santa Monica Airport). Furthermore, the Sierra Club has endorsed Kevin McKeown, Richard McKinnon, and Sue Himmelrich for Santa Monica City Council.

COMMENT ON THIS STORY BY SCROLLING TO FIND THE COMMENT SECTION BELOW.

Wondering how our new commenting platform, Disqus, works? Learn more about it here and start interacting with your neighbors on Patch.