He is a partner in the law firm Masry & Vititoe, which has shaken the Beverly Hills High establishment with its recently filed lawsuits, claiming that oil pumping activity on the school grounds has been releasing cancer-causing toxins into the air for years.

Mr. Masry’s previous lawsuit filed against the company Pacific, Gas and Electric brought him to media attention due to, among other things, winning the highest settlement in California’s history for the cancer victims of a corporate environmental scandal. This was turned into the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich”, with Albert Finney playing Mr. Masry.

The following interview was conducted by Salam Worldwide with Mr. Masry on May 19, 2003.

Q: In your opinion, in a city that is known for being extremely concerned with healthy living, why do you think it took all these years before anyone objected to the use of an oil rig on the Beverly Hills High school grounds?

A: Well, first of all, you have to understand, it isn’t just an oil rig. Ordinarily, you have 1 oil pumping station for every forty acres. At Beverly Hills High, you have 18 pumping stations in less than a ½ acre. This is a facility that normally would be located in a deserted area, in the middle of an ocean. The reason is that with the high volume of benzene and other products being released into the air, the air quality is very dangerous to the health. The decision to open or close those wells is strictly with the school. If the school is so anxious to make money that it doesn’t care about the safety of its students, that’s the school’s responsibility.

Q: Who are the plaintiffs you are representing in this case?

A: We began being contacted approximately 7-8 months ago by members of the faculty, staff, and alumni of Beverly Hills High. Right now, we have 600 clients, including 260 cancer cases.

Q: How would you comment on the reactions of the school authorities and also Mark Katchen to your claims?

A: We are not talking about air quality today. We are talking about air quality yesterday. What they’re testing today is irrelevant to our lawsuit. CBS arranged for us and the school district to do split samples. The night before, the school district canceled the split samples because they were concerned about what would happen. What they did is they turned off the pumps and they didn’t sample anything for two weeks. The results are night and day. Imagine an automobile accident that occurred at high noon, when the weather is dry, on a dirt road. Then the defendant recreates the scene at midnight, in rainy weather, on a muddy road. That’s what the school district is trying to do here.

Q: Do you think the situation warrants the shutting down of the school?

A: No, the situation warrants the shutting down of the pumps. I don’t know why they ever let those pumps on a school ground but I can tell you that in the entire documents we have reviewed, we have yet to find anything dealing with safety. This is a highly volatile substance we are talking about and the only safety mentioned anywhere in all the papers we have reviewed is that if there’s emergency, you should call the principal so he/she can evacuate the school. What happens if there is an explosion there? They are simply not prepared to deal with this eventuality.