More than a year after dangerous levels of polychlorinated biphenyls were discovered in several New York schools, the caulk that contains the toxin still lines the windows and doors of some classrooms.

A Spring 2008 investigation by the Daily News revealed high levels of PCBs--a toxin linked to developmental defects in children-- in the caulkings of six public schools. The schools were scrubbed and soils contaminated by the toxin were removed.

In March of 2009, the Department of Education announced that toxic levels of PCBs had been discovered in 19 more schools. Classes were cleaned and soils removed.

Now, at the start of a new school year, parents charge that toxic caulk still lines the windows and doors of their children's classrooms. Naomi Gonzalez, a Bronx mother whose 6-year-old daughter, Elimina, attends the contaminated PS 178, decided to take her frustration to the courtroom.<!--more-->

"We're starting another school year, and the city still has done nothing about this problem," Gonzalez told the Daily News. Today, Gonzalez filed a lawsuit to urge the city to remove the toxic materials. The DOE maintains that PCB-laced caulking does not pose an immediate health threat to students and so did not remove them as is required by law, according to the News.

PCBs have been found to cause acne-like skin conditions in adults and neurobehavioral and immunological defects in children, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry. Research has also found that PCBs accumulate in the blood of children who attend schools with PCB-contaminated caulking.

PCBs were banned by the federal government in 1977, but over 200 city school buildings built before the ban are suspected of having illegal contamination.