A group of Sacramento parents is pushing back on a plan to replace all the grass playing surfaces at Crocker/Riverside Elementary School with artificial turf.
It comes as the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) tells CBS Sacramento that six other elementary schools within the district have already made the switch and that they consider the move safe and sustainable.
For the concerned parents, they hope the decision is not final at Crocker/Riverside."I care about all the kids here, so I think it's important that they have a healthy environment where they spend most of their time," said Lisa Mar, parent of a child at the school.
Mar created an online petition with several hundred signatures to try to stop the switch to artificial turf, saying she does not want her child playing at recess on plastic.
"Slow down and rethink it with us, because the community wasn't consulted, and we really want grass," said mother Bianca Vargas. Vargas' daughter and niece both attend school at Crocker/Riverside. She has a long list of concerns about the use of turf. "Heat, I would say, is the biggest one. Also just the loss of connection to any natural surface," said Vargas. "We send our kids here every day. They spend long hours playing outside, and these conditions really matter." It's the added heat and potential chemical exposure from the plastics that worry these mothers most. "All the toxin exposures and the turf will make the air quality worse for kids," said Mar. "It's sad that they will be exposed to nothing but artificial surfaces if this project is completed."
In a statement to CBS News Sacramento, SCUSD says student safety is always a primary consideration when making decisions about school facility improvements.
"The conversion to artificial turf is not something new or exclusive to Crocker/Riverside Elementary. The product is a safe and sustainable alternative to natural grass and has been installed at six other elementary schools in our district as part of modernization and new construction projects in recent years," a spokesperson said in a statement.
When it comes to how turf impacts kids specifically, Dianne Woelke, a board member for the nonprofit Safe Healthy Playing Fields, says kids are not just 'small adults' and have a higher risk of negative impacts.
"They don't tolerate heat stress as easily as older people can. They are considered a vulnerable population," said Woelke. Woelke cites documented risks of cancer, hormonal disruptions and exposure to forever plastics. "They are planning on covering essentially every last but of natural surfacing at this school with plastic," said Woelke. "Parents need to be aware that there are major health risks playing on the fields beyond the heat itself, which can be extreme."
SCUSD cited California research that found no significant risk from synthetic turf fields, calling the product safe and sustainable.
"Crocker/Riverside does not have the space to support 600 students while maintaining a natural grass field in a safe and usable condition. If a sustainable natural grass solution were feasible, it would already be in place. In reality, the field has often gone unused because of safety concerns about its condition. Our goal is to create a space that is consistently safe and accessible for students. No option is perfect, but we believe this approach offers the most reliable, safe, and long-term benefit for students," said a district spokesperson in a statement.
Vargas points to a significant move made by the Los Angeles Unified School District last year, impacting all elementary and middle school campuses. "The biggest school district in California just voted to ban all artificial turf. It's the wrong direction," said Vargas. "I think the tide is turning on plastic. It's not climate-friendly." And as for the students, a Crocker/Riverside Elementary sixth grader tells CBS Sacramento they play outside at least twice a day and students prefer grass, not turf.
"It would make me feel like I would want to be indoors more than outdoors, because I would know what's out there, and I just wouldn't want to go play on it," said Alexa. "Children should deserve to play in a natural environment." The concerned parents are also threatening to take further action in a potential lawsuit.
At SCUSD's board meeting on Thursday, district leaders are expected to approve a CEQA exemption related to the project. The parents say they will be there in numbers to speak out against it.
"They talk green school yards, but what we're getting is a plastic school yard," said Vargas.SCUSD says the move comes as the district is thinking deeply about how to adapt to a rapidly changing climate, as well as mitigate its impact on it.
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