{"id":327381,"date":"2026-08-22T13:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T13:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/327381\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T13:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T13:52:11","slug":"nyc-school-parents-near-gowanus-canal-demand-kathy-hochul-resign-for-endangering-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/327381\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC school parents near Gowanus Canal demand Kathy Hochul resign for endangering kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Furious Brooklyn parents are demanding Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a> resign, accusing her administration of forcing their special needs elementary students to breathe in cancer-causing chemicals near the notorious Gowanus Canal for more than two years.<\/p>\n

The PTA at PS 372 is in an uproar over the state\u2019s lackluster efforts to mitigate contaminated air, which recent samples found is filled with cancer-causing compounds such as benzene and xylene \u2014 and seeping into the basement of the school\u2019s annex building at 219 First St.<\/p>\n

With the start of the school year less than three weeks away, they are terrified about their children\u2019s safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The PTA blames Gov. Kathy Hochul for failing to protect their kids. Lev Radin\/ZUMA \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are outraged that New York State agencies under your leadership have failed to safeguard the school community from documented toxic chemical threats in our indoor air for two and a half years, even though those same agencies determined that soil vapor intrusion mitigation was mandated,\u201d parents addressed Hochul in the growing petition<\/a>, that as of Friday, had more than 400 signatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you cannot protect the children, faculty and staff of PS 372, you do not deserve to be Governor of New York State,\u201d parents said in the petition.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Department of Conservation and Department of Health have been tasked with handling the cleanup at PS 372, which has roughly 450 students. <\/p>\n

Michelle Tsai, left, and Julia Finegan, right, are terrified for their children\u2019s safety. Leonardo Munoz for NY Post<\/p>\n

Bruce Blakeman, Nassau County executive<\/a> and a Republican running for New York governor, said it\u2019s appalling that Hochul completely disregarded the children\u2019s health.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is horrifying that Kathy Hochul has forced pre-K and kindergarten children to breathe air contaminated with cancer-causing toxins for over two years while state agencies sat on their hands,\u201d Blakeman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaving our youngest, most vulnerable children in a toxic basement is an unforgivable betrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n

PS. 372 has been dealing with vapor intrusion mitigation efforts since 2024. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post<\/p>\n

The DEC vowed to address the problem in March 2024<\/a>, when air and soil sampling revealed alarming levels of toxic compounds seeping into the school.<\/p>\n

A sub-slab depressurization system \u2014 a system of pipes and fans that removes harmful gases from beneath a building and vents them outside \u2014 wasn\u2019t installed by the DEC until a year later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Parents only learned this summer that toxins detected within the building remain above normal levels, even though DOE and DEC officials assure that it\u2019s still safe for children and teachers to be inside.<\/p>\n

In an Aug. 12 letter sent to school administrators, DEC officials said they are installing heat recovery ventilators for additional filtration \u2014 but a Friday notice revealed they won\u2019t be installed by the time the school year starts. <\/p>\n

Several sites along the Gowanus Canal are contaminated. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Walter Hang, the president of Environmental Health Research Group, which leads toxic cleanup campaigns across the state, described the HRVs as \u201clittle vacuums\u201d that replace dirty, warm air from inside the building with air from outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis system isn\u2019t designed to operate in this situation,\u201d Hang said. \u201cThe only solution is to get rid of the pollution.\u201d <\/p>\n

The only way to get rid of that pollution, Hang explained, would be to dig up all the tainted soil from underneath the school\u2019s foundation and in the surrounding area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just an unbelievable fiasco, and the governor\u2019s got to explain why this problem hasn\u2019t been solved and what she\u2019s going to do about it,\u201d Hang said.<\/p>\n

Tsai started the petition. Leonardo Munoz for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she can\u2019t protect public health and the environment by strictly enforcing all of the legal mandates, I don\u2019t think she should be our governor<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gowanus neighborhood has dozens of brownfield sites resulting from decades of soil and groundwater pollution from gas plants and oil refineries that once lined the waterway. <\/p>\n

A Con Edison facility with a lengthy history of environmental problems<\/a> sits right across the street from the school.<\/p>\n

PS 372\u2019s main building at 512 Carroll St. was the site of a petroleum spill in June 2004 that was never cleaned up, public records show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finegan is frustrated with the lack of communication about the situation with the school community. Leonardo Munoz for NY Post<\/p>\n

The DEC didn\u2019t find the source and recommended that a vapor barrier be installed to stop toxic chemicals from making their way into the school, but the barrier was never installed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2024, soil and air samples from the annex and the main building revealed dangerous compounds were present at both sites, but officials only found the levels at the annex alarming enough to warrant intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels wildly unfair to families who are being expected to enroll their children in three weeks into this situation,\u201d said parent Julia Finegan, who has kids going into pre-K and fifth grade at the school.<\/p>\n

Parents are worried that their children wouldn\u2019t receive the same resources at another school. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI reject the idea that it\u2019s too hard to clean up the contaminated soil under our school,\u201d added Michelle Tsai, the parent who started the petition. \u201cAll of us are fighting for our kids\u2019 health, and we\u2019re not going to stop. What we need is for our leaders to fight for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finegan said she\u2019s heard more and more parents considering removing their children from the school, but are worried that their children might not get the same quality of education elsewhere.<\/p>\n

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Many students at PS 372 are provided services and specialized plans to meet developmental, learning, physical and emotional disabilities. The school itself uses a unique model that integrates general education and special needs students in each classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately the DOE does not provide a lot of opportunities like our school. We have a lot of families who need an inclusive classroom for their students and they don\u2019t have anywhere else to go,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Neither the DEC nor representatives for Hochul, who shifted into campaign mode this week with a multimillion dollar ad blitz touting her record, returned The Post\u2019s requests for comment. A recent\u00a0Siena University poll <\/a>showed Blakeman is closing in on her in the deep-blue state, with Hochul leading Blakeman just 49% to 39% among likely voters. Other right-leaning pollsters report an even tighter race,\u00a0with Hochul\u2019s lead only in the single digits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Post, a DOE spokesperson said, \u201cWe are taking this issue seriously and are working closely with our state partners to ensure that the appropriate measures are in place to maintain a safe learning environment at P.S. 372 when we open on time for the 2026-27 school year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Furious Brooklyn parents are demanding Gov. Kathy Hochul resign, accusing her administration of forcing their special needs elementary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[98,20043,426,57,9,56,63,65,64,3610,5271,58],"class_list":["post-327381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-brooklyn","tag-gowanus-canal","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-public-health","tag-schools","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}