Schools

Teacher: Illicit Auto Body Work at San Clemente High Caused Contamination

UPDATED: The auto shop was never designed for sanding, the program's founder says. Students' health may have been put at risk.

Originally posted at 10 a.m. Oct. 22, 2013. Updated to include response from Capistrano Unified.

Someone using the San Clemente High School’s Auto Academy for auto body work caused the dust and lead contamination in the shop classroom and may have compromised student health.

That’s just one of many problems Robert McCarroll enumerated in emails to Principal Michael Halt during his several-day tenure as the interim auto shop teacher, Patch has learned. McCarroll, who founded the often-lauded program more than 30 years ago, had returned after teacher James Dunlap quit two weeks into the new school year.

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“I can’t believe how filthy the shop is,” McCarroll wrote Halt on Sept. 23. “Someone was sanding and grinding body filler inside the shop (which could possibly be a breathing hazard to our students). [Parenthesis in original.]

“This shop was never intended to be an auto body shop.”

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Capistrano Unified School District officials have since learned the resulting dust does have some lead in it and subsequently relocated students to a science classroom to make way for a cleanup effort that could cost as much as $75,000.

Marcus Walton, chief communications officer for the school district, said he doesn't know whether the school's previous principal, George Duarte, was aware auto body work was being done on campus.

The Centers for Disease Control recommends ventilated sanders so that harmful lead and chromium particles do not enter workers’ lungs or nervous systems.

McCarroll’s email above was sent four days before he resigned his position as the interim auto shop teacher.

"Sanding residue is extremely hazardous and has to be performed in a highly controlled environment (e.g. spray booths, breathing apparatus, dust collecition systems, etc.)," McCarroll said in a Sept. 25 email. 

The district has not yet determined whether students had access to such equipment, Walton said. Currently, 83 students are enrolled in the academy.

In his resignation letter, McCarrroll voiced confidence that Halt and “CUSD will restore the program to the greatness that the students and parents deserve.’

Among other problems McCarroll detailed in two emails before his resignation:

  • Dunlap had created a “culture that is very foreign to high school auto shop programs,” allowing students to work on cars after school and on weekends and during summer
  • Many tools are missing
  • There’s an incomplete set of textbooks
  • An assistant to help administer the program was never replaced when the previous employee left – “without a fulltime assistant, this highly acclaimed and successful academy will cease to exist,” McCarroll wrote
  • The application for state funding was due Oct. 15 and no one was available to put together the paperwork; McCarroll suggested the district apply for a deadline extension
  • The holding area “looks like a junkyard” with older cars that were never removed, crowding out the ability of this year’s students to work on their own cars

In response, Walton said a recent tool inventory has discovered only a few tools missing, said he didn't know whether students worked in the auto shop during non-school hours and the paperwork to maintain the state funding has been submitted on time.

As for Dunlap's "culture" he created in the classroom, Walton said: "Mr. McCarroll’s predecessor is no longer with the district."

"This is a program that students value," Walton added. "The school and the district are working to provide a quality educational experience for the students. Finding a qualified teacher with the requisite technical and instructional skills has proven challenging. However, the school and district are committed to providing a quality program."

See previous Patch coverage on this developing story:

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