Chain Reaction

A two-year test audit of 52 Colorado public school chemistry labs found that 92 percent had chemicals that were so old and unstable they had to be removed by police bomb squads. In one school they found “yellow cake,” a concentrated form of uranium. Another uranium sample was so poorly stored a teacher who touched the outside of the bottle days before was still contaminated. Some of the chemicals found were so unstable that they could explode, with enough force to kill everyone in the building, just by being jostled. When he was asked to comment on the issue, state Education Commissioner Bill Moloney told reporters, “This really isn’t an issue of curriculum. I can’t help you with that. This is pretty much department of health stuff.” But local health officials say they aren’t trained for such audits. “I knew I was missing things because I knew I didn’t know what I was looking at,” said one county official after a school inspection. “I don’t have the expertise, and by no means am I a chemist.” Still, some officials are anxious to expand the audits by experts to all schools, but have not scheduled any new inspections because there is no funding for them. A similar audit was recently completed in Ohio, and it cost $3 million. (Denver Post) ...What’s a few million to secure all the schools when just one shooting incident at Columbine High cost ten million?