If a corporation built homes over a toxic site, they’d be pilloried.

But when the Los Angeles Unified School District knowingly built a high school on a site seeping methane from 100 year old oil fields, he criticism was muted.

As it stands, that high school has yet to open and will cost $400 million when it does. For one single high school.

You’d think that would teach ‘em. But no…

Dangerous levels of lead have been found under a parking lot that the Los Angeles Unified School District plans to turn into playing fields for Virgil Middle School, reigniting the ire of project opponents, it was reported today.The district plans to move the school’s current playing fields to build an elementary school on the site.

Past reports have found contaminants on the land and groundwater under the future fields, which now contain commercial property and Virgil’s teacher parking lot, the Los Angeles Times reported. Cleanup costs are expected to reach $10 million.

On Friday, teachers received a notice from the state Division of Toxic Substances Control informing them that lead levels exceeding safety standards had been found in the ground under the gravel lot, according to The Times.

The lot was paved over the weekend to contain the lead, which could be harmful if inhaled.

According to the Division of Toxic Substances Control, lead levels at the site were found to be more than 100 times the recommended limit of 255 milligrams per kilogram in samples taken a month ago, The Times reported.

“We’ve been walking on that for years,” math teacher Maria Magana, who has been among the most vocal opponents of the project, told The Times. “This is exactly what the teachers mean when they say they don’t trust the district to do the $10 million cleanup correctly.”