Parents: Gordon still unsafe

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Parents: Gordon still unsafe

By Bajeerah Lowe, Staff Writer October 08, 2002

Staff photo by Amy Dragoo

Standing outside Gordon Middle School on Monday, parents look over a letter

issued by the Coatesville Area School District claiming the air quality

inside the school is safe.

COATESVILLE -- The sounds of construction have been silenced during school

hours and the air quality tests, reported district officials, show Gordon

Middle School is safe, but some parents are still not confident that their

children will not face health hazards when they enter the building.

On Monday morning, parents gathered outside the middle school and

administration building with signs demanding answers from administration.

" They won't talk to us at all, " said Ojeda, father of a

seventh-grader. He and his daughter, Marilyn, who didn't attend school

Monday, joined others in the protest at Gordon.

" They don't know what's going on, " Marilyn Ojeda said of her classmates who

sat inside the building. " They're scared of getting sick and dying. "

The school was evacuated twice last week after reports of noxious odors.

Last Tuesday, 55 students and teachers were taken to area hospitals with

complaints of nausea and headaches but the school reopened after initial air

tests came back showing the school was safe. After last week's evacuations,

the school was ordered closed by the Coatesville fire marshal and the

Chester County Department of Health to allow time for further testing.

In reports released by the school district Monday, the health department and

an engineering firm hired by the school district both cleared the school,

ruling it safe for education to continue.

In a letter dated Oct. 6 to the district from the engineering and consulting

firm Spotts, s and McCoy, Odette Mina, director of occupational health

and safety services, reported indoor air quality sampling and analytical

results registered " well below the Pennsylvania Department of Health Indoor

Air Quality Guidelines for Pennsylvania Schools for Volatile Organic

Compounds. " Mina went on to recommend that the school reopen Monday.

An inspection form from the Chester County Health Department dated Monday

also cleared the school to reopen. Environmental health specialist D.

Zeeger said the report from Mina, the amended construction schedules halting

work during school hours and an inspection Monday met the department's

requirements.

But some parents still have doubts, especially after hearing a handful of

teachers and approximately 45 students went home sick on Monday.

" They did the testing but they're not coming out and addressing us in

person. It's like they're hiding. The more they hide, the more I keep

thinking something is wrong, " said Ojeda, who took off work Monday to

protest with his daughter. " ..Let us go through the school. Let us see

everything is OK. "

Parents Sharon Ross and Antoinette each said what they have seen in

the building wasn't pleasing. Each entered the building Monday and took

pictures and video of what they found.

Among Ross' pictures of construction debris in a stairwell and missing

ceiling tiles near the cafeteria are pictures of a blocked-off area marked

with a " Danger -- Asbestos " sign and wires jutting out of a hole in the main

hallway wall. The wires are held in place by a piece of cardboard.

Ross said when she went back into the school Monday afternoon to try to get

further answers, the blocked-off area was open and the asbestos sign was

gone.

said she captured similar cases on video.

Director of Public Safety Bill Whitman refused to comment on the situation

as he left Gordon. Superintendent T. Scarnati and Chief Financial and

Operations Officer Haws did not immediately return phone calls.

Ross said until she gets answers about this and other problems, her sixth-

and seventh-grader won't be returning to school.

" They're not here today and they won't be until I see an official test. I

want to be able to take it to my own people and have them review it, " she

said.

While she expressed interest to school district officials in transferring

her children to one of the two other middle schools in the district, Ross

said she has been told that will be impossible. So she and her husband are

going to research homeschooling and private schools.

's daughter returned to school Monday but still has

reservations. " I don't feel safe about her being there but she needs an

education, " she said. " ..I'm fighting and I'm fighting until the end. "

, too, was interested in transferring her child to another middle

school. But she has also been told that will be impossible.

The school board voted over the summer to not allow any exceptions in the

district.

Parents aren't the only ones concerned. " Kids are upset and nervous, " said

student Tashi Mason as she was leaving school Monday afternoon.

" Classes went on as normal but students and teachers left during the day.

They went home sick, " said classmate Brown.

" The kids are scared to come to school. School shouldn't be open, " added

Colbi Rollins as she walked towards home.

©Daily Local News 2002