South Carolina parents send their children to school with the expectation that they will receive a good education in a safe environment. But what if schools are not as safe as they are supposed to be? Children could be unwitting victims of asbestos exposure, which can lead to serious and even fatal health problems in the future.

Right now, groups of out-of-state parents are dealing with this exact scenario. In the middle of Sept. 2019, an environmental expert discovered damaged asbestos in one of the schools in his or her area. Despite the well-known dangers of asbestos, the school system did not have the problem examined until a news agency started to investigate the matter in late Oct. 2019.

This is not the first time that this particular school district has dealt with asbestos problems. Construction at one of its high schools resulted in contamination that likely exposed many of its 1,000 students to asbestos. One parent in the district reported that he kept his children home from school following these ongoing problems, citing concerns that they could possibly develop cancer in a decade or two.

Asbestos can often be found all over older school buildings in South Carolina, and may even show up in things like ceiling and floor tiles in schools that were built more recently. Any asbestos exposure can cause innocent children who are simply trying to get an education to develop devastating illnesses like mesothelioma. When this happens, it might be up to parents to take serious action against negligent school districts.