There’s an issue burning away at the moment, affecting thousands or tens of thousands of us that I don’t think is getting anything like the attention it deserves. 

Three additional coloured sand products tested positive for asbestos contamination this week. Two on Monday, another on Thursday. Additional brands sold at discount shops around the country to add to the products already announced in the recall earlier this month. 

I’ll put my cards on the table: our 8-year-old is at a school that has been affected by the recall. They tested and found traces of asbestos and a number of classrooms have been affected. 

Even though the testing found no traces of asbestos in the air, for at least the remainder of the year, the school has been thrown into a situation where they’re trying to teach the same number of kids in far fewer classrooms. It means ad-hoc, cramped learning spaces. In two classrooms they’re going to have to remove all the carpet, wall coverings, and soft furnishings. Other classrooms require professional deep-cleans. It’s not clear if the work will be finished in time for term one next year and the clean-up is going to cost tens-of-thousands of dollars. 

But as we were informed in a letter home this week —surprise, surprise— no one wants to pay for it. The school’s insurance won’t cover it. The Ministry of Education won’t cover it. Kmart, which in the school’s case had sold the dangerous product, has directed them to the manufacturer in China. As it stands, the school is expecting to have to cover the cost of the clean-up. Money that should have been spent on educating children will not be repaid. 

How many New Zealand schools face a similar situation? All we know is that as of yesterday, nine schools or early learning centres had tested positive for asbestos. 129 were still waiting to confirm testing results, although the Ministry of Education says it’s just a voluntary reporting system at the moment (which seems inadequate!), so the number could be higher. 

You can hardly blame the schools for the situation. They weren’t negligent. It’s not like they knowingly painted their classrooms with lead paint. They bought a children’s product that should have been ideal for creative learning from reputable retailers with an entirely reasonable expectation that it would be safe. 

And now that this has been discovered, it’s not like they can just ignore it. Schools that are testing are doing the right thing. Even if the risk is super low, what parent would allow their child to be taught in a classroom that was testing positive for asbestos? What teacher would teach in it? 

In my view it would be a great injustice if the schools that are doing the right thing in handling this crisis ended up significantly out of pocket. Surely under our consumer guarantee and product safety laws, retailers can’t simply abdicate all responsibility and palm off the affected schools to distant manufacturers in China? And even if legally they can, then surely there is a moral responsibility to do the right thing. 

One obvious measure I think would help the affected schools is a collective legal effort, so they’re not all fighting for redress or compensation in isolation. It’s the sort of thing you’d reasonably expect the Ministry of Education to help with coordinating once testing results are confirmed everywhere. 

There’s no telling where this whole thing will end up. 

But while at least their classrooms will be safe, if schools end up footing the bill for all the testing and clean-up of a product they reasonably trusted, at the end of the day it’ll be our kids who pay the price. 

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