Former school teacher Randal J. Ecker, age 60, has plead guilty to one count of violating federal regulations after failing to alert the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before procuring five of his special-education pupils to pull up asbestos-containing tiles “as part of a renovation project.”
Both Ecker and members of the school board in Bridger, Montana, were reportedly aware that old floor tiles in the high school contained high levels of asbestos. Ecker “kept the project secret” from the school board as well as the EPA. He also failed to alert the neighborhood landfill that the debris contained asbestos.
Ecker now faces a potential two-year prison sentence, the maximum under the law, and will be ordered to pay a $250,000 fine. The Bridger, Montana school district settled a law suit brought forth by the five special education students and their families. Each received a lump sum of $251,000 in restitution.
Exposure to asbestos has been connected to the eventual onset of pleural mesothelioma, a fatal type of cancer that affects the lining of the lungs. Mesothelioma presently has no known cure and a survival rate of less than one percent. Upon exposure to asbestos it may take up to fifty years for mesothelioma symptoms to manifest, causing anxiety for the young students and their parents.
The Mesothelioma & Asbestos Awareness Center commends the strict penalties put in place as a result of EPA’s Clean Air Act and recommends the maximum sentence under the law for all offenders involved in asbestos-related crimes.
The Mesothelioma & Asbestos Awareness Center is the web’s foremost resource for information related to asbestos exposure, mesothelioma, mesothelioma treatment methods, and more. For further information, please visit the Mesothelioma & Asbestos Center website at http://www.maacenter.org/.
