Debris piles up along the eroding railroad embankment running alongside Bret Harte Elementary School Bret Harte Elementary School is not just a workplace After 23 years at the East Hyde Park school Dawkins feels a personal stake in Bret Harte “This is my house,” Dawkins told the Herald she has grown increasingly distressed by the buildup of soil and detritus along the railway track embankment behind the school’s western wall piles of refuse and several rat dens scattered among the trees lining the embankment Platt noticed that runoff from rainwater had pulled soil from the top of the embankment down to the school’s back wall “This is up on our property at least four feet high,” Platt said months later in an interview with the Herald The brick, he said, will be steadily eroded by water seeping through the soil if it isn’t cleared away, resulting in potentially thousands of dollars in repairs “Maybe it's just a matter of cleaning it up and battening it down but there needs to be a plan for the side of our building,” Platt said Although Dawkins shares Platt’s concern about the physical integrity of the school building her main worry is for the school’s children She worries that a student will sneak through a gap in the rusty fence separating the school’s property from the railroad’s and scramble up the embankment onto the tracks Dawkins also fears the rats nesting in the embankment might scurry across the school’s parking lot onto the playground “The children would’ve seen it if they’d been out here.” Approximately 20,000 people in the U.S. are bitten by rats every year, most of whom are children, according to a 2007 study published in Clinical Microbiology Reviews the fever linked to rat bites is fatal in about 13% of cases But after Hawkins and Platt sounded the alarm about these issues with local and federal officials no one has acted with the urgency they expected “It just keeps getting kicked down the road,” Platt said where a staffer said the office would investigate the issue But after not hearing back from Yancy’s office they called a second time and were told to reach out to the local congressperson They tried Congressman Jonathan Jackson’s (D-1st) office but were told Bret Harte isn’t in the First District but the Second so they should contact Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-2nd) instead After not hearing back from Kelly’s office for weeks She told the Herald that erosion or detritus building up downhill from a railroad track does not violate federal law It would only be a violation if it obstructed the railroad tracks or signals the regulations aren't so helpful for the neighbors,” Berghorst said But she sympathized with Dawkins and Platt and told them she would reach out to Canadian National (CN) Railways which owns the property adjoining the school “You do have a responsibility to keep this cleaned up and this area secure,” Berghorst recalled telling CN but admitted companies are generally slow about fixing such problems CN said in a written statement to the Herald that the company is “aware of the situation and is taking the appropriate steps to address and rectify the concerns raised by the community.”  Although CN sent two workers to assess the issue about a month ago Dawkins and Platt said no one had returned to clean and fix up the embankment CN track and engineering workers walked the site last week and “will be making appropriate repairs” starting this week “to address the erosion and overgrowth.” But Dawkins hadn’t seen any workers near school premises last week Email notifications are only sent once a day Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Details: cache-fra-eddf8230169-FRA 1746503083 1360262328 CA– Bret Harte Union High School will honor its athletic history with the induction of 12 individuals and one team into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday and supporters from the 2023 and 2024 induction classes This year’s standout inductee is the 1994-95 Bret Harte wrestling team which dominated the season under head coach Jan Schulz The team secured the Mother Lode League Dual Meet Championship by defeating competitors like Escalon overcoming Calaveras with a narrow 29-27 victory finishing the season with an impressive 31-2 record with assistance from Jerry Middleton and Ken Baldwin The following inductees will also be honored: Dinner tickets for the event are $50 and available for purchase in the school office between 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. Credit card purchases will incur a $1.50 fee per ticket. Ticket sales close on the Wednesday before the event. For more information visit here Written by Nic Peterson Sign up for our Breaking News Alerts and the myMotherLode.com Daily Newsletters by clicking here. Report breaking news, traffic or weather to our News Hotline (209) 532-6397. Send Mother Lode News Story photos to news@clarkebroadcasting.com For local news delivered to your email daily, sign up myMotherLode’s FREE Daily Newsletter here A male victim was found shot and critically wounded Monday night in San Francisco's Bret Harte neighborhood The shooting happened on the 1200 block of Gilman Avenue, as KRON4 repots on the opposite side of the Third Street corridor from Silver Terrace SFPD officers were called to the scene at 8:46 pm Mondau Officers then found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds which were considered to be life-threatening Police have not publicly identified any suspects Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call the SFPD tip line at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with “SFPD.” Tipsters can remain anonymous The FBI appears to be making progress in whatever investigation resulted in the June raid of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home but we still don’t know why the raid happened or who the FBI’s suspects are ABC 7 gave a very friendly interview to embattled San Mateo Co Sheriff Christina Corpus; Urban Alchemy was hit with some hateful graffiti; and Kamala Harris was passing through SF last night Get the latest posts delivered right to your inbox Barmann is a fiction writer and web editor who's lived in San Francisco for 20+ years Get all the latest & greatest posts delivered straight to your inbox