Asbestos that closed Philly high schools exposed deep rifts

The fiasco that resulted in 1,000 students from two Philly high schools being out of class for three weeks exposed parents' anxieties about the safety of their schools.

Air Date: October 15, 2019

Maurice Boston, a freshman at Ben Franklin H.S., shows his support at a packed meeting discussing the closures of Ben Franklin and Science Leadership Academy high schools because of asbestos remediation at the school district building Monday morning. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)

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About 1,000 students are finally back in class this week after construction delays and the discovery of asbestos forced a building housing two Philadelphia high schools to close for more than three weeks. While officials scrambled to find a space for them, parents pushed back hard on the district’s proposals. WHYY education reporter Avi Wolfman-Arent explains why this fiasco exposed parents’ anxieties about the safety of Philly’s schools.

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