My name is Heather Gallagher, and I am writing to you as a parent demanding immediate, modernized safety standards for wireless radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in school environments. Parents should not have to fight relentless, exhausting battles with school board districts and multi-billion-dollar telecommunications corporations simply to ensure that our children are safe from non-ionizing radiation exposure while attending public school. My teenager attended Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, California, where a massive industrial cell tower was operating directly on the school's athletic fields. Alarmingly, we discovered a heartbreaking cluster of young Physical Education teachers and athletic coaches from that school diagnosed with rare cancers. Distracted and deeply concerned, I hired a professional Building Biologist to conduct independent testing on the school ground. The measured radiation levels were shockingly high. Recognizing the severe risk to students and faculty, I worked tirelessly to educate our local school board on the biological science surrounding RF radiation. After reviewing the evidence, the school board voted to remove the tower. During this process, we uncovered an even more egregious outrage: T-Mobile had installed the tower illegally, having failed to secure the proper local permits. It took lengthy and arduous legal negotiations between the district and T-Mobile to undo this violation. Finally, after immense public pressure and community advocacy, the tower is scheduled to be taken down this November 2026. Following this ordeal, our school district passed a moratorium on new cell towers on school grounds. It is utterly ridiculous that a parent must act as a full-time advocate, investigator, and legal watchdog just to keep children safe at school—and unacceptable that telecommunications giants like T-Mobile can bypass municipal laws to erect unauthorized towers on campuses where children spend five days a week. The FCC’s current exposure guidelines are decades out of date, relying on obsolete thermal models that ignore an overwhelming and growing body of peer-reviewed scientific literature demonstrating…
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