A southeast Louisiana school board voted Thursday to close a predominantly black elementary school adjacent to a petrochemical facility embroiled in several lawsuits over its high levels of toxic emissions.

Denka Performance Elastomer LLC manufactures the synthetic rubber neoprene used in wetsuits, laptop sleeves and other common products. The facility emits the likely carcinogen chloroprene in such high concentrations that it exposes the surrounding black community to an unacceptable risk of cancer, according to a 2023 federal complaint filed against Denka on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA warned that the several hundred students who attend 5th Ward Elementary, about a quarter-mile from the Denka facility, are among those who face an increased risk of cancer.

Air monitoring consistently shows long-term concentrations of chloroprene in the air around the Denka facility, up to 15 times the recommended lifetime exposure levels, the federal complaint states. The EPA says Denka’s chloroprene emissions are why the surrounding communities of St. John the Baptist have the highest estimated risk of cancer at the national level.

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The Biden administration has invested billions in the EPA to address environmental justice issues and put Denka at the forefront of its efforts to hold industrial polluters accountable for their impact on minority neighborhoods. Many of these fenceline communities are located along a heavily industrialized 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, officially called the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor and commonly referred to by environmental groups as the “Alley Cancer”.

The facility’s parent company, Tokyo-based Denka, fought the EPA’s order in April to drastically reduce its facility’s chloroprene emissions within 90 days, receiving support from Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry. The case remains stuck in federal court. A Denka spokesman said his facility had “significantly reduced” its chloroprene emissions and that the EPA was relying on “distorted” science. Denka’s June fenceline air monitoring report shows its chloroprene emissions remained four times higher than EPA-required standards. Denka’s spokesman said the EPA was relying on “an overly conservative risk assessment.”

In June, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a separate motion to have the school board close the elementary school, arguing the board had clear evidence of the health risks Denka posed to students. The school board of St. John the Baptist is one of the dozens in the south that has remained under desegregation orders for decades.

The legal defense fund claims the school board is violating the desegregation order by disproportionately exposing black students to Denka’s pollution when there are alternative schools they could go to elsewhere in the district and, in many cases, closer to their homes . The school board’s director of risk management, Alvarez Hertzock III, said the district takes the issues raised in the lawsuit “extremely seriously.”

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In several public hearings held by the school board earlier this year to discuss closing 5th Ward Elementary, some parents and teachers spoke out against breaking up the school’s tight-knit community.

“We want to stay together,” Ward 5 Elementary Principal Rajean Butler said at a Jan. 31 meeting, adding that her own child is enrolled at the school. “Knowing they’re going to be torn apart just breaks my heart.”

“I’ve created a space where every child is loved as my own,” Butler said, flanked by a group of community members. “I’m speaking from my heart and I’m saying please don’t do this to our babies, our families. I just can’t imagine the thought of them being in a place where they’re not loved.”

Months later, after a tense discussion, the school board voted 7 to 4 to close the school beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. The several hundred students who currently attend 5th Ward Elementary will be sent to two other nearby locations.

School Board President Shawn Wallace said the board made the decision to close 5th Ward Elementary solely for financial reasons due to low enrollment in the district.

But Nia Mitchell-Williams, another board member, said the ongoing desegregation process is “the real elephant in the room” and pressed the board to close the school before a federal judge takes action instead .

Raydel Morris, the board member who represents the 5th Ward Elementary school district, opposed closing the school because he said it would lead to another blighted building in a black community.

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He also said the council’s proposed solution would fail to significantly end the exposure of most students to Denka’s pollution, moving many to another school, East St. John Preparatory, less than 1 mile from the facility.

“We take them from the front door and put them in the backyard,” Morris said.

Legal Defense Fund attorney Victor Jones said the school board dragged its feet for far too long and should remove the students from 5th Ward Elementary immediately, not next school year.

“The board has an ongoing and ongoing obligation to operate healthy and safe facilities for children,” Jones said. “Every day that school remains open, those children remain at risk.”

Jones added that students relocated to schools near Denka would remain at risk from its toxic emissions.

School district Superintendent Cleo Perry said she is not concerned about the possible health consequences of students being moved to East St. John Preparatory. He said the board was now focusing on the logistics of school transfers.

“When you’re dealing with school consolidation, it’s very heartbreaking, it’s hard on families, students, teachers alike, so our goal right now is to work with our community to make the best transition possible,” said he.