Civil rights complaint filed over school mold

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If they can't find it in the school maybe one of the kids or teachers has toxic

mold in there home and the student is reacting  to them.......

 

 

Civil rights complaint filed over school mold

http://www.dailyadv ance.com/ news/civil- rights-complaint -filed-over-

school-mold- 16268

By CATHY WILSON

The Perquimans Weekly

Friday, February 26, 2010

HERTFORD — A Hertford woman who claims the presence of mold in the Perquimans

County Schools severely affected her allergic 13-year-old son, has removed the

boy from school and filed a federal discrimination complaint against the school

district.

Theresa Gay said she removed her son, , from the Perquimans County Schools

Jan. 25 after he was exposed to toxic mold spores while attending Perquimans

Middle School and the Accelerated Learning Center.

Gay claims her son, an eighth-grader, suffered serious asthma attacks and a

variety of other symptoms while attending the middle school and the ALC between

August 28, 2009 and Jan. 15, 2010.

She filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil

Rights on Jan. 25, alleging the Perquimans County Schools discriminated against

her son, who has a disability, by not providing “a clean learning

environment.â€

Jim Bradshaw, an official with the press office of the U.S. Department of

Education in Washington, D.C., confirmed Tuesday that the agency’s civil

rights office received a complaint against the Perquimans County Schools. The

complaint is being evaluated, he said, to determine whether the allegations are

appropriate for an investigation.

The Education Department would have jurisdiction because asthma and allergy

sufferers are protected from discrimination by the Americans With Disabilities

Act of 1990.

Lassiter, public information officer for the Perquimans schools, said in

a statement Wednesday that the superintendent’ s office was notified by

telephone that “a potential investigation from the OCR was forthcoming.â€

“No further information or written documentation has been received as of Feb.

24,†Lassiter said. “An investigator or mediator will gather information

through interviewing witnesses, obtaining documentation, and making visits to

appropriate sites.â€

Superintendent Dwayne Stallings said school officials have turned the matter

over to the school board’s attorney.

Gay has been home-schooling her son since she withdrew him from school last

month. She says he is now showing signs of improvement from being exposed to

mold at the middle school.

“We are not sure of how much of his memory will come back, staying focused,

being tired, or if (his) chemical sensitivity will improve,†Gay wrote in an

e-mail.

“Only time will tell. The great thing is, he has had no vertigo or headaches

since he was signed out of school.â€

Gay said her son has a history of asthma, rhinitis, and hearing deficits. He is

allergic to grass, weeds, dogs, dust mites and mold, she said.

“ was born without the gene to fight off toxic mold,†Gay said.

“That’s why his (condition) is the worst-case scenario.â€

According to information obtained by The Perquimans Weekly, the middle school

was inspected by an industrial hygiene consultant with the N.C. Department of

Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, in February, 2009 and no

mold was found.

Two months later, another state inspection of the school was performed. A report

from that inspection found the school “overall ... in very good repair. Vents

are clean and there is no visible mold growth through the school.â€

Previously, Stallings said he and Nixon, the school district’s

director of school safety and maintenance, “exhausted all measures†to

resolve Gay’s complaint, ensuring schools remain safe and clean for students.

“Safety remains our top priority (because we realize) students can’t learn

until they are in a safe and healthy environment,†Stallings said. “Although

this was an isolated complaint, it still warranted our top priority.â€

 

According to Nixon, quarterly inspections were performed on all four of the

district’s schools and each received grades of between 96 and 99 out of 100.

“Our custodians do a fantastic job in keeping our schools clean,†Nixon

said.

If the Education Department does decide to investigate, one of its first tasks

will be to determine whether there has been a violation of a federal statute or

regulation. If a violation has occurred, the school system would have a specific

time period, usually 60 days, to correct the violation or provide the federal

agency with a plan of correction.