Toxic Uproar at El Puente School
Critics Claim Contaminants Could Harm Students
On downtown’s busy Gutierrez Street, in the middle of an industrial zone, sits a school that, by design, is easy to miss.
Unlike most public schools, El Puente Community School has no grand entrance announcing its presence at 430 East Gutierrez Street, across the street from Ace Hardware. With its dull-ivory fa§ade and dirty awnings, the building looks more like a gas company than a school.
El Puente offers classes to about 140 students, most of them expelled from traditional high schools or middle schools on the South Coast for fighting, coming to school with drugs or weapons, gang involvement, or cutting class. Despite its drab outward appearance, the school boasts a relatively new interior, along with a reputation for getting kids back on track. But while El Puente gets an “A” for academics and classroom upkeep, the jury’s out on its record for environmental safety.
