Schools expel Wifi

Parents are forcing schools that have installed wireless networks for their students to revert back to traditional wired systems as a result of health concerns.

Although Wifi has never been confirmed as harmful, some scientists believe that the small amounts of radiation emitted from the transmitters could be dangerous. The effects could lead to headaches, fatigue, memory and behavioural problems, with a long term threat of cancer.

Until the effects are clear, parents and teachers have joined forces to push schools to switch off wireless systems in the classroom, says a report in The Times.

One school that has decided to take such action is Ysgol Pantycelyn, a comprehensive in Carmarthenshire.

Hywel Pugh, the headteacher, told The Times: “The county council and central government told us that wireless networks are perfectly safe, but as there were concerns we listened to them and decided that the concerns of the parents were of greater importance than our need to have a wireless network.”

Other schools have also followed suit, including the Stowe School in Buckinghamshire after a teacher became violently ill from suspected radiation poisoning.

Sir William Stewart, chairman of the Health Protection Agency, said the evidence against using Wifi for radiation issues had become more persuasive in the last five years, and that schools would be justified to take precautionary measures. However, a spokesman for the DfES disagreed saying it was “up to individual schools to decide”.

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