Jefferson Forest High - Teacher: 'This building is killing me'

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May 9, 2001 - 11:05 PM

Teacher: 'This building is killing me'

By Brennan

The News & Advance

After the ceiling in Higgins' classroom collapsed over Thanksgiving

break, a canopy of black plastic caught rainwater, which dripped into trash

cans around the room.

" I joked and told people I lived in the rain forest, " said Higgins, who has

taught home economics at Jefferson Forest High School for 15 years.

But the joke turned serious when Higgins' classroom was labeled as a " hot

room " and closed April 25.

" I'm pretty sure my room is where the big bad Stachybotrys started, " Higgins

said.

Stachybotrys is the mold that prompted school officials to close the entire

school April 27. Tests performed earlier that month in response to a

complaint filed with OSHA found that three classrooms had elevated levels of

Stachybotrys mold; one had an elevated level of penicillium and one had

visible mold on the drywall.

The evacuation of Higgins' room, and then the whole school, was inevitable,

according to teachers who have put up with a leaking roof for years.

" Every time it rained for the last 10 years, water would drip down the

wall, " Higgins said.

The ceiling collapse in Higgins' room occurred after the roof was being

replaced for the third time in the school's 29-year history. When she

returned from Thanksgiving break, there were 2 to 3 inches of water on her

carpet. Custodians used wet-vacs and dehumidifiers to try to dry the room

out, but it wasn't until spring break that the roofers finally removed the

carpet.

Just days before the school was closed, a cabinet was moved and the wall

behind it was solid black with mold, Higgins said.

Higgins headed to the doctor for a blood test and chest X-ray. Neither

showed a problem, but Higgins is worried about possible long-term effects.

" I've never been as sick as I've been this year, " she said.

The worst problems started in December, she said. She lost her voice and

could no longer sing in her church choir. She lost her sense of smell, had

headaches, extreme fatigue, diarrhea and depression.

" Every symptom that can be caused by that mold, I experienced, " Higgins

said.

Higgins filed a workers' compensation claim.

" I told everyone, 'This building is killing me,' and 'I'm sick and tired of

being sick and tired,' " she said.

Principal Larry Mays said Higgins did complain about upper-respiratory

problems, which he also suffers from. Mays has an air purifier in his

office, at his doctor's orders, he said, from a chronic condition he had

before coming to Jefferson Forest two years ago.

In the last two weeks since the high school closed, Higgins has started to

feel better.

" I can actually sing a little bit, " she said.

Higgins said she doesn't blame the current administration or Superintendent

Blevins for the school's plight. She blames his predecessor,

Kent.

" He's the one that cut the maintenance budget, " Higgins said. " The big

problem is the money. "

Senior Colgan said Higgins' room was the worst. Colgan said she

has been in at least three of the sick rooms, which were easily

distinguishable.

" In a way, you could look at teachers and tell, " she said.

Colgan herself has averaged one sinus infection a year until this year.

" Since January, I've had four or five of them, " she said. " I think there's

something wrong. "

Teacher Ferrell said she helped the people who filed complaints with

the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and would have

signed one herself if it had been necessary.

Ferrell said she doesn't think the administration would have acted without

the OSHA complaint.

" Something needed to nudge the situation, " she said.

Mays disagreed. He said the plan all along had been to test air quality

after the new roof was completed in April.

Mays said Thursday the school still has not gotten test results back, which

are supposed to include all areas of the high school. He said that despite

the hassle of closing school, it was the right move.

" I think we always want to err on the side of caution when it comes to the

health of staff and students, " Mays said.

Ferrell, who teaches social studies, was also in one of the five hot rooms.

The room was hot temperature-wise, too, she said, reaching 85 degrees daily.

It was so humid, posters would fall off the walls.

" Morning classes were fine, " she said. " Afternoon classes were just

appalling. "

The kids were groggy; Ferrell's head hurt. Like Higgins, she said the

symptoms were worst from December to March.

" We went through boxes of tissues like free beer at a sailor's picnic, " she

said.

Even last winter, Ferrell said, cases of bronchitis among her students were

severe and prolonged, lasting six weeks, rather than 10 days. Everyone was

glad for snow days or spring break for a chance to recover, she said.

Freshman s, who had world history with Ferrell, said the students

weren't surprised when a sign on the door said, " environmentally unsafe. "

" It was really hot in there and it was really humid in there, " she said.

" You always knew there was something wrong with it. "

Phyllis Mayer, also a hot-room teacher, isn't sure what to blame her

illnesses on, but she has been sick.

" I've been sicker than I've ever been, " said Mayer, who teaches part time.

This was Mayer's second year in teaching, a second career for her. She had

pneumonia in September and bronchitis in October, November and December. She

says she has been fine since then, but her room had a " major leak " and her

kids had lots of runny noses and watery eyes.

" I'm overwhelmed by all this, " she said. " I can't imagine where this is

going to end. "

Martha Hicks has taught physical education and coached at Jefferson Forest

for 24 years. This year she got a new room, and it turned out to be one of

the sick rooms. While she is healthy, she had a student who had to transfer

to another school because of asthma.

She admits to headaches and fatigue, but her concern extends beyond air

quality. She said too many of her colleagues have developed cancer, as well

as two students who both had an extremely rare form of cancer. Two teachers

have died from cancer in the last two years, she said.

" That's what worries me as a health teacher, " she said. " I don't think they

know enough about this mold. "

Because the roof has always leaked, Hicks doesn't believe Stachybotrys is a

new problem.

" I think that stuff has been there for a long, long time, " she said.

No connection between the mold and cancer has been established. In fact, the

toxins from the mold don't seem to bother some people at all, while those

with allergies, asthma or immune problems may suffer greatly.

Health officials are investigating whether an outbreak of bleeding in the

lungs of infants in the Cleveland area in the mid-1990s may be related to

Stachybotrys.

Marie ston's classroom hasn't been labeled hot, but she won't be

surprised if further testing shows it is.

Her room is also well over 80 degrees and the humidity is so high that she

once remarked out loud to her students, " Gosh, I think it's going to rain. "

Since Christmas, ston has gotten headaches every afternoon. She, too,

had lost confidence that the school administration was going to act.

" We've been talking about this building being sick for at least three

years, " she said.