ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, La. (WGNO) — The Authorized Protection Fund has filed a short in an effort to shut a St. John the Baptist Parish elementary college and transfer its location from a close-by chemical plant.

On June 12, the LDF filed the transient as a part of its St. John the Baptist Parish College desegregation case to shut Fifth Ward Elementary College and switch its college students to a LaPlace college.

In accordance with a information launch, Fifth Ward Elementary is positioned lower than a mile away from Denka Efficiency Elastomer and predominantly serves Black and Hispanic college students.

The discharge states the plant emits chloroprene, a chemical that “environmental scientists have decided when inhaled, particularly by young children, may cause most cancers and genetic mutations.”

In September 2022, the Related Press reported that the EPA was investigating if Black residents within the space have been being discriminated in opposition to by “failing to manage air air pollution in parishes full of refineries and petrochemical crops.”

In October 2022, the Environmental Safety Company wrote a 56-page letter outlining findings that air air pollution was allowed to stay excessive within the space and made a advice to shut Fifth Ward Elementary and relocate its college students.

The letter claimed residents within the predominately Black space had been uncovered to carcinogens for many years.

On June 12, the LDF filed the transient to stipulate why college students at Fifth Ward Elementary ought to be moved to LaPlace Elementary College.

Learn the LDF’s full transient:

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