Wyandotte schools ‘hornswoggled’ into T-Mobile 5G tower deal

Wyandotte schools will not be able to turn on a controversial T-Mobile 5G tower atop Washington Elementary School, a Wayne County Circuit Court judge ruled Friday.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Adel Harb’s decision came after tower opponents filed a lawsuit that argued adverse health effects could come from RF waves emanating from the tower.

Harb granted the requested restraining order because the plaintiffs — Wyandotte residents Kathryn Teets, Lisa Beck and Melissa Waara — are likely to succeed in the lawsuit and because they will suffer “irreparable harm and loss” if the district proceeds with the communications facility, she wrote. The residents sued the school district, city, board of education, city council, Mayor Robert Desana, T-Mobile, former Superintendent Catherine Cost and more than a dozen other current and former city and district employees.

The lawsuit alleges T-Mobile “hornswoggled” the Wyandotte school district and duped the city engineer into issuing the district an illegal building permit and certificate of occupancy to build a wireless communications facility on top of Washington Elementary School.

Josh Castmore, a Wyandotte resident and the plaintiff’s attorney, criticized the district and city in the lawsuit for taking this deal and argued that the permit is illegal because the city’s zoning ordinance forbids wireless communications facilities from being located in residential zoning districts, except for municipally-owned or controlled properties.

Instead of listening to residents, elected officials “cowardly lashed back at residents and at the other branch of government,” Castmore wrote in the complaint.

“Faced with chicken-hearted and lily-livered elected and appointed City and School District officials who will not enforce the law and are afraid to stand up to a foreign-government-owned corporate bully, the good citizens of Wyandotte have no choice but to choose ‘self-help,'” Castmore wrote. “Unless enjoined by this Court, T-Mobile will begin transmitting noxious, dangerous wireless radiation from the antennas atop the Washington Elementary School continuously all day, every day at a site where young children study and play during their most important developmental years.”

Cartmore called the facility a nuisance and asked the judge to order the city to shut it down and remove it.

The temporary restraining order Harb granted Friday is the first step in the litigation, which will now continue in Wayne County Circuit Court to determine if the wireless facility can proceed.

Interim Wyandotte Superintendent Carla Harting said in a statement the district is aware of the lawsuit.

“WPS has a legally-binding lease agreement with T-Mobile for the cell tower,” Harting wrote in the statement. “The filing of a lawsuit represents a new chapter in the recent debate over the future of the tower.  As with all litigation, this matter will be referred to school district legal counsel. The claims made in the lawsuit will be navigated in the court proceedings to follow. Despite the recent debate, WPS emphasizes and renews its commitment to serve the best interests of the school community and ensure the community’s safety and wellness.”

A call to Wyandotte’s city attorney Friday afternoon was not immediately returned.

The legal action comes nearly two months following the resignation of Wyandotte Public Schools superintendent Catherine Cost amid backlash over a five-year lease signed between the district and T-Mobile, authorizing tower use. The district would get a $1,000 monthly lease payment and $150 for utilities for up to 30 years, according to the lawsuit.

Prior to her resignation, Cost wrote in a March 20 letter posted on the public school district’s website that multiple antennas placed on the chimney of the school were analyzed and will emit radio frequency waves that are “well, well below the legal limits, and will not cause harm to children.”

Concerns of the costs to move the tower and break contract with T-Mobile loomed, as some suggested the move could potentially cost the district millions of dollars.

“T-Mobile has been in breach of the contract with the School District since day one because the tower, in its current location, violates our zoning laws,” Castmore said in a statement to The Detroit News. “It is located in a residential district and should only be located in an industrial zone.”

Castmore, who parents two daughters at Washington Elementary School, said he learned of the cell tower in September 2022, when the superintendent sent a letter to parents advising of the construction.

The antennas were placed on the school chimney and awaited activation slated for June 9, when school concludes for the year. The move prompted a group of parents to speak out in February and demand its removal.

Parents opposing the cell tower have said that the Federal Communication Commission’s guidelines for evaluating human exposure to RF fields, which were updated in 1996, need to be reviewed and updated to account for the new 5G technology. The guidelines say: “Exposures exceeding the guideline’s levels, however, are only likely to be encountered very close to, and directly in front of, the antennas. In such cases, precautions such as time limits can avoid exposure in excess of the guidelines. Individuals living or working within the building are not at risk.”

Castmore said his team resorted to legal action after exhausting every avenue to sway the city and the school district to take action.

A hearing scheduled for June 12 would determine whether the injunction would stay in place for the pendency of the case, according to Harb’s order.

Wyandotte 5G debate spurs political action

Among the politicians who have expressed support for the parents is U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit, whose district includes Wyandotte. He shares the parents’ concerns that the FCC’s guidelines need to be updated.

“We are still operating with the guidelines that were placed in 1996 despite significant technological changes,” Thanedar said during last week’s online forum.

The freshman congressman has said that he’s written to the chairwoman of the FCC to look at the guidelines and has called for more funds to go toward long-term research studying the impact of radiofrequency specifically on children.

During an online forum in March, Theodora Scarato, executive director of Environmental Health Trust, said the current FCC guidelines are “based on science that had to do with small animals exposed to high intense amounts in a very short amount of time.” She added: “There were not designed to address biological effects or effects from long-term exposures. And they were not set to consider children’s vulnerability to wireless radiation. They are more sensitive.”

State Rep. James DeSana, R-Ash Township, has introduced legislation that would ban cellphone towers on schools. State Rep. Jaime Churches, D-Wyandotte, and state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, are critical of the original deal signed by the school board and T-Mobile in June 2018. The lease agreement was approved amid a series of items that needed board approval and without any board discussions.

Camilleri and Churches wrote in a joint statement that “going into a contract like this with a large business entity, without any kind of guardrails or clauses to mitigate the effects of breaking such a contract, should have been more carefully planned out beforehand.”

The two added: “When conflicts like this arise, public schools need to have the ability to switch gears without any repercussions to their finances.”

jaimery@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @wordsbyjakkar

kberg@detroitnews.com

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