Boy suffering from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome.
By Raif Karerat
An elite boarding school in Massachusetts is being sued by parents who claim the school’s Wi-Fi signal is making their son ill.
The unidentified plaintiffs claim the Fay School in Southboro, Mass. is exacerbating a condition in their son known as Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome, a condition that is aggravated by electromagnetic radiation, according to a report by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
The boy was diagnosed after he frequently experienced headaches, nosebleeds, nausea, and other symptoms while sitting in class after the school installed a new, more powerful wireless Internet system in 2013, the suit says.
The family is seeking $250,000 in damages and wants the school to switch to Ethernet cable Internet or turn down the Wi-Fi signal, according to The Telegram.
Whether EHS is a real condition is debatable in the wider medical community; the World Health Organization, for instance, acknowledges the existence of EHS, but clarifies it “is not a medical diagnosis, nor is it clear that it represents a single medical problem.”
In a statement released Monday, the Fay School revealed that after hearing the family’s concerns regarding its Wi-Fi, it hired a company called Isotrope, LLC, which specializes in measurement and analysis of radio communication signals and evaluation of emissions safety compliance, to perform an analysis.
“Isotrope found that the combined levels of access point emissions, broadcast radio and television signals, and other RFE emissions on campus ‘were substantially less than one ten-thousandth (1/10,000th) of the applicable (FCC) safety limits,’” the statement said.
The family is conversely arguing that the school is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as its own handbook, which they say promises reasonable accommodations for students’ disabilities.