Parents rally to put brakes on moldy trailer classrooms in Parkchester

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This is sick in so many ways!!

Parents rally to put brakes on moldy trailer classrooms in Parkchester

http://www.nydailyn ews.com/ny_ local/bronx/ 2009/12/15/ 2009-12-15_

parents_rally_ to_put_brakes_ on_moldy_ trailer_classroo ms_in_parkcheste r.html

BY TANYANIKA SAMUELS

SHOW-AND-TELL for these public school pupils involves dangerous mold in

their trailer classrooms, parents charge.

At Public School 106 in Parkchester, parents are rallying against the city's

decision to place their children back in the trailers after a recent

inspection and cleanup effort found mold in the trailers and 100 cats living

underneath them.

" I'm flabbergasted that they would even contemplate sending our kids back

there, " said parent leader Marie Plaisir.

Students are due back in the trailer classrooms this week.

City Department of Education officials said the problem has been solved.

" The mold was remediated. The [transitional classroom units] are safe for

occupancy, " said spokeswoman Margie Feinberg.

Parents of PS 106 youngsters couldn't disagree more, and they've partnered

with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest to permanently retire the

trailers. Parents also plan to protest outside City Hall tomorrow.

The elementary school houses six classes - about 160 first- and

fourth-graders - in seven trailers on-site.

Parents first noticed mold growing around air vents in the trailers in late

October.

" We were shocked to see the conditions in these rooms, " said Parent

Association President McKay. " Every room had mold growing around all

four of its vents. Some classrooms had mold making its way down the walls

and on blackboards. "

The city inspected the trailers on Nov.19, and students were relocated. The

following week, city crews removed the cats living under the trailers,

patched holes and replaced skirting around the trailers, and cleaned the

mold.

Parent Flecha believes her son got sick from the mold.

" Once they took him out, he got better, " she said. " I can't have him back in

those portables. He's not going back in there. "

The city's cleanup effort was not thorough enough, Community School

District11 President Sebastian Ulanga charged.

" The issue of water leakage was not fixed. It doesn't take a brainiac to

figure out that water and moisture are catalysts for mold, " he said. " Unless

they address this issue, we're going to have a mold issue again. "

Parents also complained the trailers are past their retirement age. The

units should be in use for only seven years, Ulanga said, but the ones at PS

106 have been used for 11 years.

Parents want to relocate children to nearby Public School 127, which

reportedly is underutilized. For the long term, they're hoping for an annex.

" We need to get rid of them altogether, " said McKay, who has a 7-year-old

son at the school. " Our children deserve better than that. "

Read more:

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