Lawyers want own test of St. East

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Lawyers want own test of St. East

By Jim Faber

STAFF WRITER

GENEVA - Lawyers representing St. East High School students in a

class action lawsuit will meet with a judge Friday to ask that they be

allowed to bring in their own environmental experts to examine the school.

St. East was shut Monday for at least a week for tests and

clean-up of mold that produces toxins which can cause dizziness, breathing

difficulties, memory loss, hearing loss and bleeding in the lungs.

A group of lawyers gathered outside the old Kane County Courthouse here

Wednesday to announce and explain the class-action lawsuit, filed this week

on behalf of all students possibly exposed to dangerous molds at the High

School on Dunham Road.

The most-important thing is that the school " not open until an

independent person has determined it is safe, " said Foote, a partner

in Foote, Meyers, Mielke & Flowers LLC in Geneva.

Foote and Terry Ekl, of Clarendon Hills-based Connolly, Ekl &

PC, said they want to bring in their own expert, Dr. Spengler, director

of environmental science at Harvard University. The lawyers will meet with a

judge in court on Friday morning.

The purpose of the class-action suit is fourfold, Foote said.

The first goal is to get Spengler access to the high school, so that he

can conduct his own testing. The second is to make sure that the school is

not opened again until the court is satisfied that it is safe. The third is

to provide every student who could have been exposed to the mold a chance

for medical screening. The final goal is to get compensation for those

injured by the situation, he said.

The school district drafted a brief statement in regard to the

class-action suit and other lawsuits filed previously. The statement was

drafted by Superintendent Francis Kostel and one of the district's assistant

superintendents, .

" The safety of staff and students has been and continues to be a top

priority for the administration and Board of Education, " the district's

statement read. " This type of complaint is referred to the district's

insurance carrier. They will appoint an attorney to represent the school

district. The attorney will file an appearance and answer on the district's

behalf citing various actions the district has taken to correct the problem,

including the costly and extensive remediation efforts made to STC-EHS to

date. "

Those remediation efforts didn't come quickly enough, Ekl complained.

Ekl contended that a task force set up by the school more than a year ago

to look at potential health problems in the school failed to act in a

definitive way until the environmental tests over spring break this year

that shut the school down.

The school started hearing environmental complaints in 1997 and spent

$5.6 million to replace most of the ventilation system and change carpet to

tiles.

Ekl and Foote did not know how many students ultimately might be part of

the class-action suit but they it should apply to anyone who had attended

the school from 1986 to the present.

Likely, the suit will start with 150 to 200 people with the most-advanced

respiratory and neurological symptoms, Ekl said.

Rumors also surfaced this week that parts of the school would be razed,

or that the school is likely to be condemned and torn down. School officials

dismiss those rumors.

" I have heard nothing that would indicate that would be true, " she said.

Students, parents and staff gathered earlier this week at the Norris

Cultural Arts Center to learn about what had triggered the shutdown of the

school.

If St. East has to be closed for more than a week, Principal Nina

Narozny said there are possibilities of holding classes at St. North

High School, some of the middle schools and at some local theaters.

" The loss of our usual space is crippling to our operation, " Narozny

said.

AAA Environmental Inc., which had been working 10- and 12-hour days to

conduct tests and culture samples throughout the school, recommended the

closing of the Dunham Wing and the Little Theater after molds stachybotrys

and aspergillus/penicillium were found inside the walls. Later, those molds

were found in other parts of the building as well.

School Board member Steve Cole said that six tests were conducted since

1997, and none found mold in the building.

Staff writer Tempest contributed to this report.