RIPON, Calif. — Parents in Ripon are claiming a major win against the Ripon Unified School District this week.
This is after Sprint announced they will remove a cell phone tower from a Ripon elementary school campus that parents believe was causing cancer in their students.
12-year-old Kyle Prime is in remission after being diagnosed with kidney cancer that his mom believes was caused by the cell phone tower.
"He lost his right kidney," said Kellie Prime, Kyle's mom.
While he is in remission, contact sports like tackle football are still out of the question for him.
"I don't ever want to see another child have to go through what my son went through. It's just not something that a mother should have to watch," Prime said.
Kellie Prime said Kyle was the first of four students and three staff members at Weston Elementary School to be diagnosed with cancer in about two years.
"There's no way we can leave it alone at this point," she said.
According to Prime, Kyle's doctor said his cancer was environmentally caused and, after sifting through piles of research, she believes a cell phone tower placed in the middle of her son's former school might be to blame.
"We've always said that we don't know if that's the cause, but we know that of the other five schools, it's the only other thing that could be different," she said.
She teamed up with another parent of a student recently diagnosed with cancer to ask the Ripon Unified School District to move the cell phone tower. It's a fight that has been going on for two years now, because the district says they are in a legally binding contract with Sprint and that there was no legal basis on which the district can demand that Sprint remove the tower.
"Ripon USD asked for multiple independent tests that have shown that the cell tower is operating safely well within standard state and federal limits," a spokesperson for Ripon USD said in an emailed statement. "Regardless, we take the ongoing concerns seriously and want our families to feel comfortable in their school."
"We have to keep these kids safe while they are going to school, we have to," Prime said.
Over the weekend, Sprint announced that they will relocate the tower.
"We understand though that the community has concerns, and we're committed to being good neighbors, so we're actively working with the school district on solutions to relocate the site," Adrienne Norton, a spokesperson for Sprint Corporate Communications said.
"It just is so relieving to know that they at least take into consideration that we are concerned for our children, so I can't thank them enough for doing that because a lot of companies wouldn't do that. A lot of companies would say we have a contract, and this is where we're staying," Prime said.
Sprint tells ABC10 they do not have a timeline yet on when this cell phone tower will be removed, however, they say that they are working to relocate it as quickly as possible.
Parents leading this initiative are holding a community meeting about this issue on April 3rd at 6 p.m. at the Ripon Christian Performing Arts Center.
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