Port St. Lucie School Hiding Mold Problem

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Friday January 18 02:22 PM EST Children Claim Headaches At SchoolNot sick of school, but sick because of school? • Check Out The Best 18 Golf Holes From Vero To Boca • Get The Latest Weather • Sign Up For Daily News Flashes • Find A New Car For The New Year Some Treasure Coast parents say a Port St. Lucie school is hazardous to their children's health. They're accusing school officials of covering up that health threat by expelling sick students. The parents said the school may claim the classrooms are OK, but their children are saying something quite different. Donnelly Jr., 8, doesn't look like a sick kid. He'll tell you that he doesn't feel sick, either, except when he's in one of the portable classrooms at Morningside Academy. "As soon as I get in the classroom, it's like my head starts getting really dizzy and the room starts going around in circles," he said. Said his father, Sr., "We thought he was just trying to get out of school, but every time we sent him back to school, it seemed like it would get worse. And we'd keep him home for a few days and it would start clearing up." Medical tests revealed only that the boy was reacting to fungus spores. That's when the Donnellys started talking to other parents. "All the parents had the same story," Sr., said. Said parent Desantis, "We all started to talk to each other and realized about 10 of the 25 children in the classroom were constantly getting sick. We went to the principal and asked her to check into the problem and we weren't given satisfactory answers." Principal Hellen Klassen sent a memo home with students, stating an environmental company had evaluated the portables and determined they were not suffering from "sick building syndrome" and there was no need to move the kids. But the children continued to complain. "After a couple of hours, most of the kids would complain of headaches and I would just feel really bad," Desantis' daughter, , said. This week, just days after Donnelly, Sr., took his story to a local newspaper, he received a letter informing him that his two boys had been expelled because of an argument with a church elder. The Donnellys believe there is a serious problem with the buildings and the school is putting children at risk by not getting to the bottom of it. "I'm very sad because I love the excellent education they were receiving there," Donnelly Sr.'s wife, Lori, said. "It's breaking my heart. It still breaks my heart." Klassen declined an on-camera interview with Eyewitness News 25, but she reiterated that an environmental company cleared the buildings. A parent of one of the sick children, who works for the Department of Children and Families, sent in his own environmental testers. Those results are expected back in 2-3 weeks. http://dailynews./htx/wpbf/20020118/lo/1053235_1.html