Parents in the upper West side of New York City will be entering mediation with the state’s Department of Education over PCBs found in the light fixtures of the area’s public schools.  The dispute began with a lawsuit filed by the attorney group, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, who is now advising parents to “call your elected officials, call the media yourself and mobilize folks yourselves." Gigi Gazon, an organizer with NYLPI, stated, "If we’re in mediation, we have to give the DOE the benefit of the doubt right now," added Gazon, who hopes the process will expedite the timeline.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2011 and alleged that the city contains more than 1,200 schools housing PCB-contaminated lights.  Although the city submitted plans to remediate the situation with the next 10 years, that timeframe was not quick enough for concerned parents, teachers and advocates.  Most felt that the city was willfully moving slowly on the issue and failed to take the matter of student safety seriously in doing so.  

New York City petitioned the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn to dismiss the lawsuit; however, Judge Sterling Johnson rejected the motion to do so.  "The judge threw the book at [them]… and wrote a scathing decision saying that [they were] willfully moving slowly," Gazon said.  It was at this point that the city looked to mediation as a possible solution. 

In some of the instances, the parents didn’t learn about the PCB-contaminated and leaking lights until almost three months after they had initially been discovered.  It is this sort of lack of transparency, combined with the Department of Education’s seemingly lack of concern in taking care of the issue quickly, which has angered the parents and encouraged the lawsuit.  Both sides are hoping that the process of mediation will quickly resolve the matter before litigation continues.