St. East mold suit loses 24 plaintiffs

[Guest guest]

Unfortunately, the dismal of " victims " is happening more and more.

Many of us are/were more interested in finding out what was making

us ill, trying to find a doctor/treatment that a lawsuit was the

farthest thing from our minds. But the laws, as they are written

today, does not take that into account. It's when you suspect or

should have suspected " mold " was making you sick. So your time limit

starts then. Many cases are never brought to light because of this,

which is sad.

St. East mold suit loses 24 plaintiffs

Chicago Daily Herald - Chicago,IL

By Tona Kunz

tkunz@...

http://www.dailyherald.com/news/kanestory.asp?id=317768 & cc=k & tc= & t=

Three months after the mold lawsuit against the St. school

district was expanded, it has shrunk again.

In February, nearly six years into the lawsuit, Kane County Judge

Colwell allowed 29 plaintiffs to join the suit with its sole

remaining complainant, former student Lindsey Scharpenter.

This month, Colwell dismissed 24 of them from the case. The

plaintiffs, all former students, were dismissed for failing to meet

legal timelines for answering discovery questions from school

district attorneys.

Six plaintiffs remain in the case.

The original lawsuit filed in 2001 had a mix of students, teachers

and cafeteria workers from St. High School, which would

later become St. East High School. That group was whittled

down when many were unable to prove their illnesses were related to

mold at the school.

The student plaintiffs claim a variety of illnesses were caused from

exposure to mold in the school.

The lawsuit alleges the district failed to address environmental

concerns at the school. For more than 10 years before mold forced

the school's closure in March 2001, some teachers and students

complained of fatigue, headaches and breathing difficulties when in

the building.

In 1997, parents and teachers unsuccessfully pushed for testing of

the building. Partial tests were done in 1998 and 1999. Members of

the school's air quality task force formally requested a

comprehensive room-by-room study for mold in January 1999 and again

in May 2000.

Inspections in 2001 found mold growing behind walls because of

problems with the heating and air conditioning system. The school

was closed for 18 months and $28 million was spent to remediate the

problem.

Attempts failed in May 2004 at opening the lawsuit to a class-action

status for the approximately 3,000 students and 350 staff who were

in the building with the mold growth.