Florida School District Holds Meeting About Cell Phone Tower

After a cell phone tower in Collier County, Florida was constructed on Poinciana Elementary School without the knowledge of nearby residents, opposition of the structure grew out of fear for their children’s safety and anger that they had no previous knowledge of the construction.

One Inside Towers reader shared that, “This tower is within 150 feet of our residential property lines and no one in our community was notified of these plans! Standard procedure is that neighboring residents should be notified of any permits approved nearby. We constantly receive permit notices for things we don't care about—t his we care about and we were never informed. As it happens, the school parents and the PTA were never advised either. The SAC has no authority to make a decision like this and the school board has yet to release the minutes from the approval meeting, how many attended and who, and what the vote was at the seemingly secret April 2011 meeting.”

Residents of the community were so outrage that they demanded the tower be relocated. However, the school district held a meeting last night to discuss the tower, the health concerns, and ways to make the tower less noticeable. The school distract says they considered the health risks before agreeing to this project with the cell phone company, Sprint.

“At ground level near typical cellular base stations, the amount of RF energy is thousands of times less than the limits for safe exposure set by the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and other regulatory authorities. It is very unlikely that a person could be exposed to RF levels in excess of these limits just by being near a cell phone tower,” The American Cancer Society explains.

There have been studies conducted that show no causal link between proximity to cell phone towers and cancer. Superintendent Doctor Kamela Patton said the contract with Sprint has already been signed and the tower has been built. The school district did say that they would consider the parents and residents concerns.