Danielson, ConnecticutA student and his family requested that his school stop using harmful pesticides on
the high school’s football field and surrounding grounds, which caused the student to
become ill, resulting in his inability to attend school for a total of eight weeks. The stu-
dent was then placed on a Section 504 Plan, which gave the student the option of stay-
ing home when he felt ill from chemical exposure and provided tutoring. However, the
student and his family complained that the tutoring was inadequate and that the stu-
dent missed out on other educational opportunities and social events at the school.
The student’s family filed a complaint under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of
1973 and Title II of the ADA. (Section 504 prohibits discrimination on the basis of
disability by a recipient of federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education, and
the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by public entities.) The
U.S. Department of Education, Region I, stated, ‘‘The ADA has essentially extended
the anti-discrimination prohibition embodied under Section 504 to all state and local
governmental entities, including public school systems.’’^79 In a letter to resolve the
complaint, the Danielson, Connecticut, school district attached an addendum to the
student’s Section 504 Plan, stating that the school district would use alternatives to
toxic pesticides that caused the student to become ill. This situation is an example of
an administrative remedy that cited the ADA as the enabling authority to offer relief to
a student whose illness was caused by school pesticide application. UnlikeAlvarez,no
court action was required to provide relief under ADA.
A student learns by using his or her central nervous system, assisted by a healthy
body, adequate nutrition, a positive sense of well-being, good teachers (both inside
and outside of school), and a clean environment. Pesticide exposure, however, robs a
student of a clean environment, can undermine or destroy the student’s health, and
may directly affect the student’s central nervous system. Learning then becomes
another casualty of pesticide exposure.^80The Pesticide Industry’s Position—Then and NowWith the publication ofSilent Springin 1962, Rachel Louise Carson set off a
nationally publicized struggle between the proponents and opponents of the wide-
spread use of poisonous chemicals to kill pests. Miss Carson, an opponent, was sub-
jected to a torrent of criticism. Here are a few examples:
Dr. Robert White-Stevens, a spokesman for the pesticide industry, said, ‘‘The
major claims of Miss Rachel Carson’s book,Silent Spring, are gross distortions of the
actual facts, completely unsupported by scientific, experimental evidence, and general
practical experience in the field. Her suggestion that pesticides are in fact biocides
destroying all life is obviously absurd in the light of the fact that without selective
biologicals, these compounds would be completely useless. The real threat, then, to
the survival of man is not chemical but biological, in the shape of hordes of insects
that can denude our forests, sweep over our croplands, ravage our food supply, and146 | Pesticides