THE KIDS OF RESERVE, LOUISIANA
Are The Kids Safe?
St the Fifth Ward Elementary in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana
The Fifth Ward Elementary School is located along the mighty muddy Mississippi River.
“This plant was built right on top of the elementary school, 1500 feet from the school and those children are being exposed to 400 to 700 times the allowable levels,” he says.
As long as too many people are dying from cancer and Covid in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, and kids aren’t learning as well as they should, Robert Taylor is going to keep agitating and telling the truth.
The plant that is killing the people is called DuPont-Denka. DuPont owned it until the company decided that it wouldn’t be profitable unless they could continue to emit chloropene at levels of concentrations causing maximum deaths among the black folk. Denka, the Japanese chemical company, secretly bought it, as The Guardian reports.
The plant makes chloroprene, which is a carcinogen, and likely the cause of the sky-high cancer rates in the parish. Chloropene is primarily used to make neoprene. There is only one plant in America that manufactures chloropene. It is the one located in Reserve.
This is where people like Robert Taylor grew up. It was a sugar-cane and agricultural community once upon a time in a childhood that had its inequities in so many ways but not chemicals too.
What about the kids? I asked Robert Taylor who founded Concerned Citizens of St. John the Baptist Parish in 2016. Because everyone is talking about the enormous cancer rates. But what about the kids? How healthy are they?
“Well, we were all kids here and we all went to that school and look at us now. The chemicals are killing our immune systems. That’s why we have highest cancer and Covid rates in the nation. The EPA set a level that they deem was acceptable, which is set at .0.2 mcg/cubic meter. DuPont never reached that level. They are always hundreds of times over that and on these children in particular they have been as high as 700 times over the children. We all were children there one time. But now we’re also seeing throughout Cancer Alley, because that’s what they call this place, you know, that we have a lot more special-education students.”
I don’t understand how a good man like Robert Taylor becomes an enemy of so many. He should be heralded as a hero. In the larger world, Robet Taylor is a hero. Because he is agitating, and that’s what Americans do, and they try to make good trouble and change things for the better.
I’m a California born America. He’s from Louisiana. In Louisiana, the chemical industry rules that state like Putin rules Russia. It’s a pretend democracy. We don’t know where all the money is going yet. But investigators will find all the connections. That’s what journalists do.
When Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Reagan came to St. John the Baptish Parish and visited the Fifth Ward Elementary, Robert Taylor says, “The Principal refused to talk to him. We invited the school-board members and they refused to meet him. They all ran and hid. Nobody wants to challenge the chemical industry around here. I don’t know what DuPont-Denka has over them that they are willing to sacrifice the lives and health their constituents. The school board refuses to take action. I’m sure the plant is putting pressure on the teachers and the principal. We had a great opportunity with the new head of the EPA.”
It’s all racism. People don’t get it. I do.
It’s racism.
The people in charge in Louisiana have a mess.
It’s an oil state.
It’s a racist state.
It’s a beautiful state, but it can get ugly.
I told Robert Taylor, “I don’t know how the hell to help you except to start sharing your story.”
Ingredients
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Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
