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Massachusetts Boarding School Sued Over Wi-Fi Sickness
alphadogg writes: The parents of an anonymous student at the Fay School in Southborough, Mass., allege that the Wi-Fi at the institution is making their child sick, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court earlier this month (PDF). The child, identified only as "G" in court documents, is said to suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome. The radio waves emitted by the school's Wi-Fi routers cause G serious discomfort and physical harm, according to the suit. "After being continually denied access to the school in order to test their student's classroom, and having their request that all classrooms in which their child is present have the WiFi network replaced with a hard-wired Ethernet denied, the parents sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act."
I mean, they should have some kind of proof that the Wi-Fi is the reason, right?
I'm guessing a whole new low has been reached here. Shaking my head ....
Chronic stupidity? Overactive placebo gland?
Tell them they have turned the wifi off to see if it helps.
Don't
See if kid magically gets better
Show me where a licensed professional made a "EMHS syndrome" diagnosis.
There is no scientific medical evidence that such a condition exists and their claims should be tossed until such a time that such a sensativity can be proven to exist. They should be encouraged to move to Alaska and homestead like all the other idiots that think they have this "disease".
WiFi sickness? Are you kidding me? They should be suing the unicorns that really cause it.
Garry Knight
I hope they don't have any cell phones in their house.
I hope they don't use a microwave.
I hope they don't live near any cell towers.
I hope they don't live near any TV or radio transmitters
What would be funny is if they had turned off WiFi in his classes and not told them, and they continued to complain.
Call Saul
More like social anxiety.
I get it. School can be shit. Much easier to blame WiFi than it is to admit that you find the social environment at school daunting and unpleasant.
My condition causes me significant discomfort around people who say aggressively stupid things, internalize and repeat strange diagnoses they read on the internet, and causes me to have thoughts of self-harm when listening to security software vendor presentations. I have repeatedly asked my employer to accommodate my needs stemming from Bullshit-intolerance Syndrome (BS), but they all just say, "that's bullshit, we won't tolerate that" to which I say "yes, that's my problem too." Perhaps I also suffer from Jackass Impulsive Recursive Comment (JIRC) disorder, but they don't want to hear about that either. I'm gonna sue.
I think not...(*poof*)
Last time I checked, the earth has a certain amount of naturally occurring electromagnetic fields. In of itself, that would nullify any EHS argument.
...since the courthouse will be filled with not just wifi, but other radio waves too. *smh
Overactive placebo gland?
Indeed, their doctor should administer a placebo blocker immediately!
Cyberchondria
The parents are apparently mentally disabled.
He's clearly allergic to the 5GHz ISM band.
... is 802.11 G
Did it have a 19th floor?
Of course Wifi only exists near hotspots, which is why I plan to sell the parents behind this lawsuit my own unique brand of Wifi that won't trigger their son's sensitivity. As everyone knows, only Wifi routers put out harmful radiation that can trigger such totally real disorders as electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome. Microwaves, on the other hand, contain all their radiation entirely within the steel box using the powers of science.
By putting their Wifi router in the microwave, along with any devices they wish to receive wifi, and turning the microwave on for 12 hours, young G's parents can bake the Wifi right into their devices without any risk of electromagnetic radiation triggering their son's disorder. I like to call it Mi-Fi.
As to what lawyer decided to make a real life case out of this after watching the show too much, I'm not sure..
How can he be sensitive to Wifi, but not to the rest of the ubiquitous RF emissions that surround us all? Cellular signals, commercial radio+TV, microwave ovens, radar, etc.
Sounds like he needs to move to The Town Without Wifi
Blind studies with control groups fail. It's not a fscking anything it's a flavor of hypochondriac, he needs counseling and possibly some psych meds.
No sir I dont like it.
Shouldn't it be called Wi-Fri?
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
The child, identified only as "G" in court documents
Well there is the problem. If the child identified himself as "N", there wouldn't be a conflict and the kid would learn faster.
This is why you make a tinfoil hat: to keep the radio waves out of your head. It's simple to do, and as a bonus the voices stop.
People this stupid and anti science have enough money to send their child to a boarding school AND bring a frivolous lawsuit.
First off, it's a boarding school, which means that you are choosing to send your child there. Don't like the service they offer? Pull them out and send them to another one, or take advantage of the free, public education provided the state of Massachusetts.
Second, what disability? Every study done has either come back inconclusive or contrary to the notion that this disease exists. Every anecdote I've personally heard has indicated that these people have an accuracy not statistically significantly different from a coin flip when it comes to accurately identifying when WiFi is around in blind tests.
Third, is it really only an issue at school? Every Starbucks and McDonald's has free WiFi at this point, and they're on practically every street corner in America at this point. If your issue is with WiFi, you have bigger problems.
Fourth, 2.4 or 5GHz? Because they're just radio waves, so it kinda makes a difference...or is it just any WiFi at all? Would you still have this disability if we switched WiFi to use the same frequencies as TV or CB radio? Because WiFi?
Ugh, these people.
Actually, a large dosage of heavy metal solutions administered IV will help block the RF, and is guaranteed to solve the root cause.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
There's another one in Los Angeles: Dewey, Cheatham and Howe.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
Of course it did that's where good old Miss Zarves taught.
From that physicians website
She treats cancer with homeopathy. "Supportive Care for Cancer: Possible treatments include: Complex homeopathy"
This makes me sad.
Oddly, works even better when administered to the parents of the sufferer instead of directly.
I don't read AC A human right
My superstition is that not having a 13th floor is bad luck, since after all what is proping up the 14th floor? Magic? Though, whatever you do, don't try proving the fact that the 14th floor is the 13th, since this will lead to confusion and mass hysteria, and may even brand you as some sort of heretic.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
You precious snowflake is sick because you put him on a strick vegan diet.
-- Will program for bandwidth
I occasionally read about parents in affluent Marin, CA whining about this. In fact, there was a movement to prevent PG&E (the local power company) from installing real-time meters that transmit usage over radio because they were afraid it could hurt them. I remember seeing a parent interviewed on the evening news, with her kid in the background playing on an iPad. Did I mention that Marin also has one of the lowest child immunization rates in the country? Yeah. These are people that get all their "facts" from Pintrest and Jenny McCarthy.
It would be interesting to know how many of the people who flip out about WiFi have previously used 2.4GHz cordless phones without any issues.
I propose a novel treatment:
Seal pure water into a container and place it into a microwave oven for 1 millisecond (or a microsecond for extreme cases). Sell it as a homopathic treatment for $50/ounce.
I should have looked more carefully. Apparently the diagnosing doctor DOES provide homeopathic treatments!
http://drhubbuch.com/patient-c...
Must be a typo. Instead it is ELVIS that is everywhere.
It doesn't bother him now. Changing the band isn't going to do anything.
Her entire page is a buzzword soup of alternative hooey. I'll trust chicken soup before I trust her.
How about providing a reasonable accommodation?
Have gnu, will travel.
Here's what the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health have to say. There was a single female individual in the NIH study that could honestly detect the initiation and termination of a field (power cycling of a device), but when one was already on (or not) she could detect nothing. Other than that, everyone seems to agree that it's mostly psychosomatic in nature and without extensive, double-blind testing the kid has very little chance of winning a diagnosis let alone the suit. I would go with something in the environment other than EMF radiation as a cause, if the little bugger is actually ill at all.
Jeanne Hubbuch, M.D. - "Utilizes integrative medical approach to treating difficult medical problems. Not a member of HMO or PPO. Specializes in treatment of chronic illness through an intergrative approach. Fibromyalgia. Dr. Hubbuch does not participate with ANY insurance company including Medicare. She is considered OUT-OF-NETWORK. Payment in full is due at the time of each visit." If it ducks like a quack...
Well there's already this product but it only works for pregnant women. So I applaud your microwave solution.
Could it cause cancer/whatever? Maybe, otherwise I wouldn't be able to actively detect it
I can detect red, salt, rough, smooth, acceleration, loud, hot + many more things. Some of these are in the form of radiation. The ones I mentioned don't cause cancer/whatever. Your argument is flawed.
and I'm sure there are people more sensitive than me.
How? You'd better have some studies or you're only as sure about it as people who are sure the earth is flat. I'm open to evidence here as long as there is some.
And yes, I'm completely willing to submit to any test anyone wants to perform. I have done so many times so far and they're always surprised that my sensory disorder is real.
Dropbox + scanned image of diagnosis document + link in reply might not get you on the 6:00 news, but it's a start.
Sigger than your average
I expect from those self-righteous, self-absorbed, uptight attitude from people like this. No one is forcing you to send your child to that school; YOU CHOOSE TO SEND YOUR CHILD TO THAT SCHOOL! Therefore, the lawsuit should be invalid on that basis; plus the claims made have zero scientific backing or acceptance in the medical community...and it just makes you look like a nutjob. The best solution would be for these people to send their child elsewhere. I mean, it's a boarding school...they obviously don't want to be parents anyway and are just looking to shrug responsibility. If they were decent parents; they'd get this child proper treatment. Seriously, a judge should look at this, decide sending the child to that school was not a requirement..and therefore no basis for lawsuit. If this was a public school...maybe...but the science would have to back up the claims...and they don't even do that.
I don't know why you were scored zero; because you do have a point. The same people that claim they suffer from wi-fi sickness have the intelligence of a herd animal. They see a fad, they jump on it. Hey, I get massive headaches on a regular basis as well; I don't blame the wifi...I probably have a tumor in the brain. Ignorance is bliss.
Not just 5GHz, it's OFDM modulation he's allergic to.
That way he can claim it's wifi in both 2.4 and 5GHz bands, but still have no problem with cellphones/towers, microwaves or TV antennas.
This should be very easy to test, and likely refute, with a little double blind science justice...
About the nicest thing you can say is that cancer patients probably should drink water; and have good reasons to drink alcohol, so some homeopathic 'remedies' may accidentally be useful...
Sorry kid, 'remove the stupid people' is not a 'reasonable accommodation'; and would definitely impose undue hardship on us. No ADA-mandated action for you.
They hate science, as their xian religion demands, so they don't understand anything. They just lash out and attack like scared animals. That is what they're acting like. Scared animals. Their kind just doesn't think logically.
Please produce the documents which prove that these people are Republicans and Christians and not just whatever kind of stupid worthless waste of carbon that you are.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Hah, Mine is better, it produces both 2.4 & 5GHz fields with wave cancelling effects. That way, ONLY WIFI signals are blocked.
We need to study why there are so many obnoxious, needlessly bright, blue LEDs everywhere.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
There was an MIT under grad psychology study done a few years ago on the Effects of WiFi on people with WiFi sensitivity. They had a WiFi generator that had antennas, dials and blinking lights. The generator was always positioned behind the test subjects so they could not directly see if it was on or off. However, there were enough reflective surfaces on the opposing wall so the the subject could tell when it was on or off. When the generator was brought in the room and and turned on the subjects felt the effects. When it was turned off and or removed from the room the subjects felt much better.
The machine did nothing.
The ceiling of the room was loaded with active WiFi base stations that were on all the time during the tests yet the subjects only reacted when the fake WiFi generator was turned on and in the room.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Slippin' Jimmy has experience with this very issue! Call up James and Chuck McGill and they'll have you wearing a space blanket in no time!
^^ This! Put this everywhere!
His brother's B and N also get sick, but at difference rates.
They're going to court because they believe their kid is being hurt by negligible amounts of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
If the kid is that sensitive, the microwave oven down the block should make him convulse.
Have gnu, will travel.
Ahem.
1) This child isn't sensitive to wifi
2) Changing the frequency by 0.05 Ghz wouldn't change it if he was
3) There is no channel 13 in 5Ghz.
4) Aren't you special
I might of said the wrong channel, big deal, I checked, it's actually 161, also 2.4 vs 5GHz isn't a change of 0.05, it's change of 2.6 GHz. If this kid really has some weird sensitivity to RF, the the only real thing the school can do is to change what band the WiFi operates in. If after changing it to 5 GHz the student is still effected, then kick him out and home school him.
The money is in a rental-only model. For a mere $649/month you can get coverage of the 2.4GHz spectrum. The $929 version will cover you for 2.4 and 5GHz. Specialty versions which can cover you over the 1.6-2.2GHz LTE bands to reduce or eliminate effects of cell phone towers are $2349/mo, but include the 2.4 and 5 GHz dampers as well.
You may ask if $25k a year is expensive. The question you should really be asking is - is your health, or the health of your child, worth it?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
If you have a third ear, does it increase your risk for EHS?
.: Semper Absurda
I wonder what would happen if his cousin, who's sensitive to electronic signals emitted by active, electrically unterminated gigabit ethernet cables decides to attend the same school. Or his sister, who's has epileptic photosensitivity at 60hz Or his younger brother who may attend next year but is allergic to asphalt, formaldehyde, pheremones, and can't metabolize sugar.
I believe the "stupid Republicans" posts are a troll, possibly from somebody who is actually right-wing. They are designed to look like they are posted by as stupid a person as possible. Have seen a couple equally ludicrous ones for the opposite direction, though they tend to use "Liberals" rather than "Democrats". Sometimes they use the exact same wording as the republican attack. Not as common, however, for whatever that means.
Just think. He can surf the internet without a computer at all!
My kid's school is full of invisible pink unicorns who breathe out harmful miasmas. I want compensation.
"There is no evidence that RF [radiofrequency] exposure is a causal factor. In a number of experimental provocation studies, persons who consider themselves electrically hypersensitive and healthy volunteers have been exposed to either sham or real RF fields, but symptoms have not been more prevalent during RF exposure than during sham in any of the experimental groups. Several studies have indicated a nocebo effect, i.e. an adverse effect caused by an expectation that something is harmful. Associations have been found between self-reported exposure and the outcomes, whereas no associations were seen with measured RF exposure."
It's an elite private boarding school full of old-money snobs, "daunting and unpleasant" wouldn't begin to describe that environment. If I had been sent there I would have found pretty much any excuse possible to be sent home (or anywhere else). Reform school would probably be preferable. Fortunately my dad worked in an iron foundry so this wasn't a concern.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Clearly, the issue is that the school is using G when they should really be using N or ac. The student is just upset about the lack of bandwidth.
If your kid is sensitive to Wi-Fi, kill him now and put him out of his misery.
This is the same logic that gets Peanut Butter sandwiches banned in some schools...
Try to look at the silver lining. This kind of practice is perhaps the reason Steve Jobs is dead today, which makes the world a better place!
He I get massive headaches fairly regularly. It seems to correlate to going through caffeine withdrawals though when I don't get my daily fix.
Time to offend someone
Have just one AP somewhere out of the way and use some Wifi Spray occasionally to make sure it propagates everywhere you need it.
Well given that they are in Massachusetts one could probably correctly make the statement that they are stupid Democrats. Although this type of stupid seem to cross party lines pretty evenly just like the anti-vax stupidity.
Time to offend someone
Atleast it was "complex" homeopathy. Wonder what that means though, even more diluted than normal perhaps?
So why do you not go and collect the Amazing Randi One Million dollar price then? Must be easy money for someone as sensitive like yourself.
Yea - but as the article clearly states - it wasn't just WiFi that the installed - it was the "Industrial Strength" WiFi... :-O
So is it just the 2.4ghz frequency or the 5ghz frequency... or both? Do cell phones bother this kid too? I mean... all day long all of us are exposed to radio waves on all kinds of frequencies. Satellites point down on us. Cell phone, radio and television broadcast at much higher powers than rinky dink wi-fi access points. Even if you crank the power up all the way. I've worked with radios for years. You can get a headache by being too close to unshielded radios. Wi-fi is a stretch.... it's not like he's standing in front of a high powered point to point or HDTV antennas that will cook you from the inside out. This family doesn't seem to know how this stuff actually works.
geek n performer who performs morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken
You might have misspelled "might have" also.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
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They did. Apparently, the switch to 5 GHz is what he is complaining about, he was fine with 2.4 GHz.
I am guessing, that they switched back, and his symptoms didn't go away, so now they are trying to say the school caused the issue and wouldn't fix it.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
About the nicest thing you can say is that cancer patients probably should drink water; and have good reasons to drink alcohol, so some homeopathic 'remedies' may accidentally be useful...
I think everyone should definitely drink water, regardless of their medical condition, but I'm not sure what alcohol has to do with homeopathy.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
If the kid is that sensitive, the microwave oven down the block should make him convulse.
Especially if dropped on his head from a great height.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I am EXTREMELY allergic to BULLSHIT.
The smell of it makes me violent.
I'm not to good with IDIOCY, either.
I propose a novel treatment: Seal pure water into a container and place it into a microwave oven for 1 millisecond (or a microsecond for extreme cases). Sell it as a homopathic treatment for $50/ounce.
Then shake shake shake. Then shake some more. Once you're done, shake....Shake, shake, repeat.
It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage. - Colonel Henry Walton Jones, Jr., Ph.D.
I would hate the think of all the radio waves swirling around us. How many radio stations are on the AM/FM Dials, HDTV, Police, Aircraft/Marine, weather, shortwave, and cell towers. All sorts of terrestrial traffic. That does not even include natural radio waves from space and the earth itself. These tin foiled hat freaks need to be told to pack up their brat and home school the little demon spawn. How are they going to know that it's the schools WIFI causing their son's illness vs all this other traffic going on? People have been complaining that we are all dieing off because of all the alleged radioactivity but I don't see the mortality charts pointing down as a matter of fact they are all going up. Best thing yet they can do is to move to some isolated Pacific Atoll and leave the rest of us alone.
Paul E. Bahre
If you read the lawsuit PDF, you can see that they are suing the school for $250,000.
It is one of the possible solvents for the serial dilution and 'succussion' thing that homeopaths do to produce their quack juice. Not as common as water; but it is an option that counts as 'homeopathic' if prepared according to the rest of the procedures.
Solubility doesn't matter much by the time you get to the end product, since basically anything is soluble enough in anything for concentrations in the 'modest probability that a single atom is present' range; but for the original solution and the first few dilutions, some materials just don't dissolve in water very well; but do nicely in alcohol.
Steel is nice and soft ... until it is arranged in a serated pattern along an edge, then it becomes a knife that can slice through a tin can - the GINSU Knife! The arrangement of energy (digital or analog) has _no_ effect on the poor delicate organic systems, any more than a few piddly molecules of iron might...
Well in that case home school the kid. It's unrealistic to disable WiFi for all students because of a weird, one off medical issue, another student has.
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So we provide him with a fake Faraday cage, that doesn't keep anything out.
For the study to be double blind you (the person building the 2 cages both the real and the true, and deciding on which day the child uses which one) must keep the information isolated.
The person handing/seting up the cage in the morning should NOT know whether the fake or an actual cage was handed out.
And only reveal the fake after the child has had a significant number of session using each.
It's a child. Children *can* be very sensitive to body language. The child could be suspicious of the smirk on your face when handing the fake cage.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Sometimes the mind can be a real jerk. Fear, stress, and anxiety can manifest some pretty bad physical symptoms. Which while illusory, can have a real physical impact on health.
I was recently told a story by my father just the other week about a person he knew that was involved. Apparently he worked in a lab with a bunch of other people, using some pretty dangerous material. In particular a gas, if escaped in enough quantity, could have some serious health impacts and even death. They had a leak, and the monitor showed concentrations far in excess of what was safe. All the staff started exhibiting the symptoms that were expected. These were well educated, professionals. However as it turned out, there had been no leak, and in fact the monitor was busted. However all the staff knew in detail about the material, what to expect, etc... The stress and anxiety experienced produced the expected results. Once the issue was determined, all symptoms vanished, and probably some people were embarrassed.
So humor these people, put tape over the blinky lights, or otherwise hide the physical locations of routers, and likely the people freaking out about them will feel better...
Having such fucking idiots for parents must indeed be a severe disability.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
You are right, one of the features of these "Republican" posts is they often are done for regions or groups that are certainly *not* Republican. This is probably the clearest indication that these are troll posts.
I say the school should call the parents bluff.
The parents and the LOLyers for the parents have to prove in court that their kid got sick thanks to the Wi-Fi. The burden of proof is on them, not the school or the defendant. Granted, it is a civil case and that should make it much more easier for the school's attorney to blast a Mars sized hole into the parents ship.
If it were me, I'd just give the parents a roll of Reynolds Wrap and say "Here you go, I met the ADA act."
I'm sick of this crap. "Wifi makes me sick! Turn off all the network gear!" Yeah, make everyone suffer because one person is sick of it. So, now I can't have wifi? Out of 2000 people, one gets sick? I'm sick of this bull people pull. If your kid is sick over this, pull them out! Don't go suing to make it worse for the other 99.999 percent over this. These parents sound more like greedy idiots than anything.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
You clearly don't want to accept that these people are just fucked in the head.
I'm pretty sure this is a psychological issue. On both their part, and yours.
You do realize the environment is identical in these scenarios. So ventilation, etc. is irrelevant.
Oh, I get it. You were so busy feeling smugly superior to other people that you lost the ability to comprehend English. Let's try this again - if the study had shown that no combination of wifi or lights made these people sick, but they still felt sick in certain places, then it's possible that it wasn't in their heads, and might have some other cause. Wouldn't that be a good thing to know as well?
to BULLSHIT! I wanna hurl every time I smell it!
Seriously, now, The Hum is an actual affliction of a small percentage of people scattered all over who are tormented by the sound of an idling diesel throbbing. Many theories have been proposed, none verified. The current one is VLF radio transmissions, and a serious experiment is underway to verify it (or not). www.thehum.info
The problem with homeopathic 'remedies' that the person may delay getting real treatment under the presumption that they were already receiving treatment.