GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Gwinnett County school officials want the board to cancel a lease that would have put a 150-foot cell tower between two Suwanee schools, after months of parent opposition.
The board approved the lease with Municipal Communications LLC in December without notifying families at Parsons Elementary or Peachtree Ridge High School.
The vote was part of the consent agenda, a routine bundle that passes each month without individual discussion.
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Ruth Youn is a Gwinnett County parent and education policy analyst who helped organize the opposition. She said the district’s justification for the tower never held up.
“There’s a lot of radiation in cell phone towers, and we were not sure we wanted our students exposed to that seven to eight hours a day,” she told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson.
She said the Parsons Elementary playground sits inside the tower’s fall zone. A similar tower already exists at least one GCPS school.
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Youn said the fight exposed a broader pattern in how tower companies choose their sites.
“They’re able to bypass all the due diligence, impact studies, community public notice by building on school property,” she said.
The Gwinnett County Board of Education is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to rescind the December approval.
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