ABSTRACT
Debra Askwith is a teacher, union member, and environmental health and
safety activist in the public schools of Springfield, Massachusetts. In the
following interview, she talks about her experiences organizing around the right
to public information as a teacher and a union member. Working with the
assistance of lawyers, she has learned to maneuver in the hierarchy of city
and school administrators as well as the city’s department of education, finding
allies and meeting resistance in a variety of places. She has worked on asbestos,
mold, indoor air quality, infectious disease, and civil rights to protect all students
and workers.
