Contract Signed for Narvie J. Harris Theme School, Lakeside Stands Alone

(click headline to view full story and contract details)

Get the Cell Out - Atlanta has received a response to our recent Open Records Request. Walter Woods, spokesperson for the DeKalb County School District, sent us the contract for Narvie J. Harris Elementary School 3981 McGill Drive, Decatur, GA 30084.

Narvie Harris T-Mobile Contract

We will have more information on the Narvie J. Harris location and number of cell towers already existing near it. In the meantime, we don't mean to say, "I told you so," but we have been warning everyone for months now that Lakeside High School's claims to want the cell tower for their school would turn out to be bogus. And, so far that's exactly how it looks.

The one school that we were told NEEDED a cell tower (to improve their ATT / T-mobile service) will end up NOT getting one. And, as things stand right now, their nearby feeder school Briarlake Elementary School which has been protesting for the past 8 months looks like it WILL get one. If that's not good enough reason for the community to find a well qualified canidate to run against Paul Womack in the upcoming JULY election, then how about some questionable ethics violations to top it off? (Yes, JULY - the same month that parents everywhere in DeKalb complained about because they were all out of town when the school board voted on the cell towers).

Conflict of Interest - Womack mentioned in a public meeting held last September that he had a son who died from brain cancer, a form of cancer that many reputable medical professionals believe can be attributed to the radiation from cell phones and other radiation-emitting wireless devices. Shouldn't his close, emotional tie to a controversial part of this entire issue have been a reason for him to excuse himself from casting a valid vote upon? What about the fact that he and his wife are big-time donors for the Duke University Brain Cancer Research Center? 

Placing one area's special interest above the good of the entire district - Another violation of the board's own ethics policies, Womack has stated that his main objective for bringing the cell tower issue to the board in the first place was to improve the coverage at Lakeside High School. So, how do towers at MLK High School, Narvie J. Harris Elementary School and Flat Rock Elementary School, all in the very southernmost portion of DeKalb County, contribute to the coverage at Lakeside?

Perhaps Womack was more concerned about how Lakeside High School would "finish the dream" since SPLOST fund were mismanaged and the district had to scale back their plans for the school's improvements. We added up all the money that the cell towers will bring in immediately after they go up (since most of it is in bonuses paid at the initiation of the contract) and, guess what? It's almost an exact match for the approximate $1 million that Lakeside needs to finish its contruction, a project headed by The Valhalla Group, the local booster club. But, when we say "local" that doesn't mean DeKalb County local... it means that some students have special permission to attend Lakeside even though they live in Fulton County. These families are rumored to be running Valhalla and since they are not tied directly to the school system, we can't request to see their financial information to determine if any deposit of funds have occurred from a T-mobile, ATT or DCSS. Go figure.

Using Inside Information to Influence Public Policy - Why else would a school's principal and PTA President be bold enough to talk about the needs for cell phone towers when their nearby elementary school is protesting over concerns for their property values and the health and safety of their children? How can one community be so apparently divided and not really have any luck convincing each other, much less anyone in authority, about who is right and who is wrong? Perhaps it is because the public protests are being led by the same groups, the administration and the PTA. So, they have mutual goals - money and coverage for Lakeside with the loss of Briarlake as an accepted casuality. Property values, they likely believe, are based more on school performance than they are harmed by cell towers. But, they might be in trouble there, too, since recent reports on graduation rates have proven them to be less successful than they once were in this area.

The facts will come out and speak for themselves, like the details of the prior attempt at Lakeside to get a cell tower in the late 1990s, the same time that Brairlake had an FCC permit for a 150' tower approved for their property, right next to the gym. What happened? Rumor has it that members of the community filed a lawsuit to stop the tower and won. Lakeside sits on donated property that cannot be used for commmercial profit. So, Lakeside leaders knew this already, another ethical violation. You can't use information to influence public policy that the public isn't aware of when you are discussing it.

Sound hard to believe?  Read this article about ATT's past with influencing public opinion and paying off people (like the PTA, perhaps?) to run their own agendas.  http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=167
If you have any information to support these claims, please let us know in the comments section. If stopping the cell towers is important to you, we want to help.