TORONTO — A school board north of Toronto has no plans to remove wireless Internet from its elementary and high schools based on concerns that the microwave exposure may be making students sick.
"We're cautious," John Dance, superintendent of education with the Simcoe County School Board, said on Monday. "We're in the business of education. We don't put children at risk, but we can't just shut it down and affect the learning of 50,000 students because someone says it might have health effects."
A campaign against the board installing wireless Internet in all its schools was launched in February by two parents who questioned the potential short- and long-term health risks of the technology. The Simcoe County Safety School Committee, which has grown over the last few months, says that parents from 14 elementary and high schools in Barrie, Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Orillia and Bradford, Ont., have reported children suffering such symptoms as headaches, blurred vision, skin rashes and dizziness.
The parents say there no other possible explanations for the symptoms and that they believe they are caused by wireless Internet, according to the group's website.
Dance said the board has met with the group on a number of occasions to listen to the concerns, but has found that they are not substantiated by scientific research.
"We haven't had any proof, like a doctor's note, that a child is sick because of wireless access," he said. "We're more than willing to accommodate people, but these symptoms are quite common and can be the result of anything."
Some of the schools in the county have had wireless Internet for the past four years. Not one school principal has received a complaint from a parent about the technology until this group came forward six months ago.
He said the group quickly dismissed research by Tony Muc, a University of Toronto professor that the board brought in to speak with them, who established that there is no proof that wireless waves pose harm.
"We have wireless because of its accessibility and equity," said Dance. "We wouldn't be in the new world of 21st century learning if we went hardwired. It's not a path we want to go back to."
A spokesperson with the concerned parents group was not immediately available.
On its website, the group urged the board to immediately remove all wireless Internet transmitters and replace them with hardwired Internet connections before students return to school in September.
"Wi-Fi is potentially harmful, especially to children," the group says in a statement posted online. "The safe school committee believes all parents have a right to know when their children are being exposed to dangerous elements inside their school. Microwave exposure is associated with infertility, neurological disorders, leukemia and cancer, especially in children."
A spokesman with the Ontario Ministry of Education was to release a comment later Monday.
Simcoe County is located about 100 kilometres north of Toronto.
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