By Kim Goldberg
August 15, 2013
8-year-old Tyler Hoffmann (Photo by Janis Hoffmann)
Eight-year-old Tyler Hoffmann has energy to burn. And his backyard trampoline, bike, basketball, and hockey stick each get a thorough workout on the afternoon I visit him at his grandmother’s home near Victoria, BC.
But in April 2012, a different story was unfolding. Tyler began coming home from Sangster Elementary School in the Sooke School District with extreme headaches and fatigue. And he was having trouble sleeping at night.
When asked to touch the part of his head that hurt, he would point to the top, his mother Lori recalls. But as the headaches grew worse over the next few weeks—to the point of nausea—Tyler was no longer able to touch the source of it, stating it was now in the middle of his head.
Tyler Hoffmann (Photo © Kim Goldberg)
“After a few weeks of using Advil and Tylenol to alleviate the severe pain in Tyler’s head, we knew something was seriously wrong,” Lori says.
The following month, she discovered what it was.
“We accidently discovered, through another parent, that the school district had just finished installing commercial wi-fi networks throughout every school,” Lori explains. “This was done without informing parents. We were denied any opportunity for input,” she adds.
Tyler’s pediatrician recommended that the school shut off the wi-fi router closest to Tyler’s classroom, so that Tyler could remain in school and complete Grade 2 with his friends.
The school’s wi-fi routers, all active and transmitting day and night, were not being used at the time (and still aren’t) because there were no computers to connect them to. So the request from a doctor to turn off a single unused router seemed simple enough, Lori thought. The Sooke School District did not agree.
School District usurps parental choice on wireless radiation
“The Assistant Superintendent told us that the router would not be turned off but would stay on 24/7 because they did not want to set a precedent,” Lori recalls. “I don’t have a cell phone, wireless router, cordless phone, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse or any other wireless devices in my home because I have made the choice of not exposing my children or myself to microwave radiation. The school district has now decided for me that Tyler will be exposed to it,” she says.
Tyler Hoffmann – back to normal once removed from his wi-fi’ed school. (Photo © Kim Goldberg)
Lori pulled Tyler out of school that same day rather than risk his health any further. And upon doing so, she was promptly informed by the school principal that Tyler’s teacher was under no obligation to give Tyler homework, marking, or evaluation so that he could complete Grade 2.
“After we removed Tyler from school, his headaches and associated nausea completely stopped,” says Lori.
In September 2012, his mother enrolled Tyler in an elementary school in the neighboring Victoria School District, where there would be no wi-fi router in his classroom.
Free from the toxic effects of commercial wi-fi in the classroom, Tyler performed at the top of his math and reading classes at his new school.
Tyler Hoffmann (Photo by Janis Hoffmann)
But transferring Tyler to an out-of-district school is, at best, a temporary solution, and does nothing to help the 8,500 other students in the Sooke School District. So Tyler’s family along with the Jeskes (another local family with electrosensitive children) have launched a legal challenge in an attempt to make Sooke School District classrooms safe for all children. Read their legal brief here.
The Hoffmann and Jeske families seek, at the very least, to bring the Sooke School District into compliance with the policies adopted in 2012 by the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, which call for a moratorium on installation of further wi-fi in BC schools plus a minimum of one school at each level in each district to be free of wi-fi to accommodate electrosensitive students.
“unlawful to experiment on children”
Tyler & his sister Julianna will both be attending schools in the Victoria School District to avoid wi-fi in classrooms. (Photo © Kim Goldberg)
“It is unethical and unlawful to experiment on children,” says Tyler’s grandmother Janis Hoffmann. “Wi-fi is an unregulated technology that has not been tested for safety for children in schools,” she adds. “Parents have not been informed of the risks and have never been asked to sign a consent form. Ironically, the student field trips are explained in great detail, requiring parents to sign a permission slip before children are permitted to attend.”
Tyler and his five-year-old sister Julianna will each attend school in the Victoria School District in September 2013 where they will not be exposed to wireless radiation from commercial wi-fi routers in their classrooms.
To donate to the legal fund for electrosensitive children sickened by wi-fi in schools, go here.
Text and images © Kim Goldberg 2013 (unless images are otherwise credited)
(Tyler Hoffmann’s story will be included in Kim Goldberg’s forthcoming book REFUGIUM: Wi-Fi Exiles and the Coming Electroplague, due out in 2014. Read more people’s stories here.)
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Dear Kim,
Thank you so much for your work in bringing attention to this horrible health problem. I wish you much success,
Thank you very much, Wendy. 🙂
Just incredible! How can administrators not care about the health of children?? ‘We were only following orders…’ Is this going to be their excuse when the children start presenting with brain tumors and heart attacks? I am so happy for Tyler that he has a family that is able to provide a safe environment for him at home and to have found a school for him to attend, wherein he will not be made ill by microwave radiation. Here’s a hug for you and your sister and family, Tyler.
There is a certain blind spot some people have about wireless devices. Their ability for rational thinking shuts down. They so strongly believe these devices are necessary they cannot fathom how they could be harmful. They have so much wrapped up in having these devices they refuse to change even if others are getting sick. They believe there is no other way to be at the top in education, or that the utilities must have smart devices in order for people to conserve. There is no room for compassion or new information in this mindset. Morality is out the window because they would rather stand firm than protect others. Even if they manage to kind of “get it” pride can get in the way of admitting they were wrong.
The solutions are using laws or creating distance, moving, when encountering this rigid thought pattern in those who control an environment in a school (or home, with smart meters).
Good series, Kim.
Well said! Thanks for stopping the site. 🙂
thanks for setting up this website and informing more people of the problem – our eldest daughter had similar symtoms – severe headaches, skin rashes and looking completely drained – this was only when the class were using the wifi enabled laptops. The school and government dont care despite me providing them with plenty of evidence going back decades that the pulsed microwaves cause many health problems. We removed the children from the school and no headaches but given that the world governments seem intent on creating some sort of control grid (internet of things) it is going to be more and more difficult to reduce exposure unless more people become aware of the health problems and take action.
we are in the UK which doesnt seem much better than the USA – France, Germany, Austria and Russia (esp Russia) seem to be a lot more informed – but then the Russians did a lot of experiments with microwave weapons in the 1950’s and 1960’s – so did the UK and USA but they dont admit to it – Barrie Trower has disclosed some military knowledge though – http://youtu.be/z99_SzoXZdY
Thank you for sharing your own story and information here, Paul. So many parents are now forced to remove their children from school and homeschool them when the children become seriously ill from the forced exposure to constant high-power wifi in classrooms. Lawsuits against school boards are indeed coming… but they really can’t come soon enough for this. Many if not most insurance companies are refusing to insure against claims of health damage caused by exposure to wireless radiation… which means individuals school board trustees will be personally liable for damages awarded in claims against school boards that forced the biotoxin of wifi on children without parental consent.
Thanks for posting! We’ve had similar experience with our school district and removed our kindergartener (now homeschooling). http://rfemf.com
I am forced to send my children to a wifi school. They all have routers in the classroom and they have tons of wireless devices in the back of the classroom and notebook computer and tablets all around them. I have lost everything to this condition and am labeled as a nut because of my severe symptoms. People are suffering so badly and we can’t get cohesive enough to really fight back. We need one strong central group in each country who can direct things there and then can also join up internationally. We have to fight back harder because some of us are running out of time.
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I have quite a bit of information on this topic having been affected for over 20 years. I spent the last 10 years researching and using myself as a guinea pig to see what is causing the sensitivities. What I learned early is that I was not affected in some buildings but I was in others. I found out later I was affected in the country I lived in but not in other countries. This led me to many answers. I was in fact a teacher for 17 years and during that time I was affected by fluorescent lighting. Later on I was affected by wifi. Then by cell phones. Then by LED lights in some buildings. The wireless signals and the fluorescent lights are not the problem. They are only the last straw in an already poor electrical environment. What causes wifi sensitivity in a school is a poorly wired electrical building. If it was wired properly wifi wouldn’t be an issue.