Schools Are Still Refusing To Let Athletes Compete In East Palestine Two Months After Toxic Derailment

Schools Are Still Refusing To Let Athletes Compete In East Palestine Two Months After Toxic Derailment

Alexa Schwerha on April 21, 2023

• Some school districts are unwilling to travel to East Palestine, Ohio, to compete in track meets months after a Norfolk Southern train derailed carrying toxic chemicals.
• The smaller competition pool has cost the school district an estimated $75,000, according to Dwayne Pavkovich, assistant principal and athletic director at East Palestine City Schools.
• “Even though our kids are still running, the ability to have some of the best of the best come and enter and compete is a frustrating situation for these student athletes,” DJ Yokley, an East Palestine resident and founder of Your Sports Network (YSN), told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Some nearby school districts are declining to visit East Palestine, Ohio, to compete in track meets two months after a train derailment exposed the town to toxic chemicals, locals told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The school district’s athletic budget dropped between 40-50% in lost participation fees, entry fees and attendance at track meets as teams from the surrounding areas have opted not to travel to the town to compete, Dwayne Pavkovich, assistant principal and athletic director at East Palestine City Schools, told the DCNF. Many are hesitant to visit East Palestine due to alleged misinformation that circulates on social media, despite the district’s best attempts to provide accurate information to other district officials.

“Social media continues to drive some false narratives that aren’t proven by experts so as we try to respect parents, and I’m a parent myself, I totally understand parents’ concerns; we try to give other factual information to the schools’ athletic directors,” he told the DCNF. “We’re really trying to navigate that. We try to have a proactive approach, host roundtables for all schools to come and get the same information we are provided. We try to reach out and give as much information as possible for people to make decisions.”

On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals, including vinyl chloride, derailed, and a controlled burn was conducted on Feb. 6 that leaked the material into the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has conducted 631 indoor air screenings and monitors the air quality at 23 locations in the community; they have reported no “detections of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride,” according to a Wednesday press release obtained by the DCNF.

“I think just being able to get the proper information to these school districts, to these communities, to let them know that it’s safe for us in East Palestine to have businesses, to have school on a daily basis, to bring in people from outside in to work here, then it’s safe for them to come in for a few hours and enjoy a track meet in one of the best stadiums in northeast Ohio,” DJ Yokley, an East Palestine resident and founder of Your Sports Network (YSN), told the DCNF.

The school, which is located nearly a mile and a half from the derailment site, hosts four invitational meets during the track season, Pavkovich explained. While they normally host upwards of more than 20 teams, the largest invitational this season had a pool of 13.

The lower number of teams traveling to East Palestine not only has impacted the revenue the district is able to pull in, it also puts a damper on the athletic experience for the athletes — some of whom missed out on their freshman season due to COVID-19.

“There is such thing as home field advantage and you like to be able to perform in front of the people that you’re closest to, your family, your friends and your community,” Yokley told the DCNF. “Even though our kids are still running, the ability to have some of the best of the best come and enter and compete is a frustrating situation for these student athletes.”

East Palestine will host a relay track meet on Friday, Pavkovich said. The meet usually brings teams from between 14-16 schools, but this year will include seven.

The baseball and softball teams, who also compete during the spring season, have not been as impacted since they play an additional four miles from the school, he explained.

The school has taken approximately a $75,000 hit in the aftermath of the derailment as the facilities are used less, according to Pavkovich. In addition to the revenue from the track meets, the school also generates money through “use events,” including JO volleyball, youth basketball and wrestling tournaments.

This summer, Road2Recovery, a group “moving to benefit youth initiatives in the village while raising awareness of local small businesses,” will host a run/walk event to raise money “to advance and improve programs that offer academic, artistic, athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities to our young and emerging students in the village of East Palestine,” according to its website. The event includes a “Hometown Walk” where local business owners will be able to promote their establishment to participants.

Cleanup efforts are still underway as the EPA and Norfolk Southern officials work to excavate the soil under the railroad and transport contaminated waste from the site, according to a Wednesday EPA press release obtained by the DCNF. Officials have shipped 28,610 tons of contaminated soil and 12,608,106 gallons of liquid waste as of April 18.

“The biggest thing I would say is that we’re just trying to strive for normalcy,” Pavkovich told the DCNF. “Our kids, they want things to get back to normal. They want to be like February 2nd again, so our charge is trying to create that as much as a normal experience as possible for them.”

Norfolk Southern, the EPA and Road2Recovery did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.