"Serving two masters"--an interview with school teacher and union organizer Debra Askwith

Our plain-English summary of "Serving two masters"--an interview with school teacher and union organizer Debra Askwith, by M.K. Scammell, E. Rodrigues (New Solutions, 2010).

The study

• Authors: M.K. Scammell, E. Rodrigues
• Journal: New Solutions
• Published: 2010;20(1):145-58
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Debra Askwith is a teacher, union member, and environmental health and safety activist in the public schools of Springfield, Massachusetts. In the following interview, she talks about her experiences organizing around the right to public information as a teacher and a union member. Working with the assistance of lawyers, she has learned to maneuver in the hierarchy of city and school administrators as well as the city's department of education, finding allies and meeting resistance in a variety of places. She has worked on asbestos, mold, indoor air quality, infectious disease, and civil rights to protect all students and workers.

In plain English

This article was an interview, not a research study. The authors interviewed Debra Askwith, a teacher of more than 20 years in the public schools of Springfield, Massachusetts, and a union representative active in school environmental health and safety. It reported no health measurements, exposure data or disease rates. Askwith described asking to see her school's asbestos management plan under the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA). A school official said she would have to check whether Askwith was entitled to a copy; Askwith confirmed her right with an attorney, but the request was denied. She made a public records request on November 19, 2008, and said she received the documents only after more than a month. In her view, the asbestos laws were not being followed and parents had not been notified. She also described problems with mold, cleaning and indoor air quality. She described the city's work on asthma in three priority schools, and her understanding that OSHA did not apply to public buildings in Massachusetts. The authors offered no conclusions of their own.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Published interview (personal account); not a research study
• Who was studied: One person: Debra Askwith, an elementary and special-needs teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts public schools and a union representative. The interview took place shortly before she left for an NEA internship that began July 10, around 2008 to 2009.
• Exposure: No measured exposure. Asbestos came up only in terms of AHERA records (the management plan, three-year re-inspection reports and annual notices). Mold and indoor air quality were also discussed. No fiber types were named.
• Main results:
  • Askwith reported that when she asked for her school's asbestos management plan, the person she asked did not know what it was.
  • Askwith reported that when she asked to copy the plan, the school official said the official would have to check whether Askwith was entitled to a copy.
  • Askwith reported that Sarah Gibson, an attorney on her union committee, told her she was entitled to a copy, but she was denied one.
  • Askwith reported making a written public records request on November 19, 2008, and having had no response a month later.
  • Askwith said she eventually obtained the records, but only after more than a month.
  • In Askwith's view, the laws were not being followed and parents had not been notified.
  • Askwith named mold as one of the biggest building issues in the schools.
  • Askwith stated her understanding that OSHA did not apply to public buildings in Massachusetts.
• The authors' conclusion: The interviewers stated no conclusions. The article consists of Askwith's own account and opinions.

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• Asbestos-associated pleural mesothelioma in school teachers: a discussion of four cases — D.E. Lilienfeld (1991)
• Asbestos screening and education programs for building and construction trades unions — S. Tillett, P. Sullivan (1993)
• Airborne concentrations of asbestos in 71 school buildings — M. Corn, K. Crump, et al. (1991)
• Asbestos contamination in United States schools from use of asbestos surfacing materials — W.J. Nicholson, E.J. Swoszowski, et al. (1979)
• Asbestos in New York City public school buildings--public policy: is there a scientific basis? — R. Wilson, A.M. Langer, et al. (1994)

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