Mold keeps students home as investigation proceeds

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Mold keeps students home as investigation proceeds

Information: Superintendent expects detailed report in 30 days.

BY CRISELDA VALDEZ

The Brownsville Herald

If today had been a normal day, Vera, like thousands of students

across the city, would have spent this morning finishing her breakfast and

preparing for her first day back to school from holiday break.

Instead, Vera will not resume classes until Jan. 16. The fourth-grader is

one of hundreds of Aiken Elementary students that will be relocated to

Morningside Elementary while their school is cleaned of mold.

Students from adjacent Besteiro Middle School have also been displaced. The

Besteiro students will be distributed to three separate areas across the

city and are scheduled to begin classes Jan. 22, according to school

district officials.

Brownsville Independent School District officials made the decision to move

the students based on information the district received Jan. 2 from Assured

Indoor Air Quality.

BISD officials said Aiken and Besteiro will be closed for an undetermined

length of time while AIAQ continues to investigate mold problems at the

schools. In a Jan. 7 press release issued by the district, health concerns

were cited as the basis for moving students.

The information submitted to the district is considered a " developing

document, " Superintendent Noe Sauceda said Tuesday in a telephone interview

with The Herald. The information contained in the document has not been

released to the public.

" We thought we would get a nice document telling us (what is in the two

schools). " Sauceda said. " But that's not what happened. "

Sauceda said the document did indicate that mold was found in the schools,

but that officials still did not know enough specific details to release to

the public. He said the document did not indicate what kind of mold was

found, how dangerous it is, or how to treat and remove the mold.

He said the district expects that report to be completed within the next 30

days.

At the next school board meeting, scheduled for Jan. 15, Sauceda said he

plans to ask the school board to hire Ambiotec Environmental Consultants, a

firm from Harlingen, to obtain a second opinion. When officials have both

reports, they can compare them and decide what to do, he said.

While the district determines the fate of the two buildings, which have been

open for at least 5½ years, Vera is wondering what will happen to her.

The young student said she is not happy about moving to a new location, even

though she is suffering from several flu-like and allergy symptoms, because

she is scared and because " you get behind in your classes.

" It's already time to go back to school. After vacations, a week later, they

(the school district) said you're going to have to wait another week, " she

said. " I enjoy going to school. You learn about things, about anything. "

Vera has been attending Aiken Elementary for two years. She said she gets

frequent nose bleeds, headaches, itchy eyes and frequently has a runny nose.

Her mother confirmed the symptoms.

The student is not currently under a physician's care.

In a Jan. 3 interview with The Herald, Villarreal, a health inspector

with the city of Brownsville's Public Health Department, said people exposed

to the types of mold found in Aiken in November could suffer from " sneezing,

allergies, other cold and flu season type of allergies. "

The worst-case symptoms might include " severe allergies, complications,

pneumonia, respiratory distress, " Villarreal said, " which by then you need a

doctor or a visit to the hospital. "

Vera said she is anxious to return to school but has math homework to keep

her busy until then. She has also written a story about the school and what

the mold problems have caused.

" (The story) is about angry parents are fighting and going to a lot of

meetings and talking about the mold, " she said. " (They're fighting) because

they want to the school to be okay and the children to be fine. "

Her request for school district officials is: " Fix the school and get over

with it, with everything. The kids and the school, everything. "

The Brownsville Herald

1135 E. Van Buren

Brownsville, TX 78520

956-542-4301

1-800-488-4301