Saturday, December 1, 2012

Walcott Assures PS 114 Parents The School Is Safe For Children

NY 1 reports:

Parents want to know: is there mold growing behind the Sandy battered walls of P.S./M.S. 114?
Until tests provide a definitive no, Maggie Murphy isn't going back to her fifth-grade classroom.

"I was scared if I could get sick," she said.

"How could you possibly open up the school and put these children and teachers and so on in jeopardy?" said parent Don Murphy. "I don't understand that."

...

The school's auditorium and gym were submerged by flood water. The New York City Department of Education said the gym and auditorium stage are off limits for now, although the auditorium was used for a welcome back pep rally.

On Thursday, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said P.S. 114 was safe for students to attend.
"We have clean air samples for 114," he said. "We do not put students in a school that's not healthy, and so I have the report, the report is fine."

But on Friday, the DOE said the air was tested for humidity, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and other materials. It said nothing about mold. So now, the teachers' union is checking.

"Let's just do the right thing," said Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers. "Let the professionals check it, and then they can assure the parents that the school is a safe place for their kids."

It's not clear when the test results will be available. Parents said they want to be reassured their kids are safe at school so they can focus on rebuilding other parts of their lives.

"I feel helpless, because all I want is for her to be safe and have an education," Moore said.

I'm so sure the report on air quality at PS 114 that Walcott has in his hands is accurate and comprehensive.

I am also sure Walcott would never try and deceive parents about the air quality or safety in a NYC school.

Except for that school in the Bronx with the toxins left over from a lighting factory that were 10,000 times the state safety limit that Walcott said was safe but turned out not be.

Remember that story?

I do:

Parents at a North Bronx elementary school have just been treated to an unpleasant late-summer surprise. At an "emotional" meeting with the parents of Bronx New School students yesterday, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced that the school's air and soil were contaminated by the potentially carcinogenic chemical trichloroethylene (TCE), and that the Department of Education had known of the contamination since February.

According to the the Daily News, the Department of Education not only waited for months to drop the bombshell, but had never tested the building and its soil before, despite the fact that it had been a factory building for 70 years. The building's last inhabitant before the old Board of Education leased the building in 1992, Nessen Lamps Inc., generated hundreds of gallons of "spent halogenated solvents used in degreasing" (like TCE) in 1986 and 1987. And the DOE has been spending $28 per square foot in rent for this literal dump each year, on top of paying for the renovations necessary to turn the space into a school.

The school's 300 students will be sent this fall to St. Martin of Tours, a former Catholic School more than 2 miles away. Walcott said the health risks presented by the exposure to the site, where soil contamination was more than 10,000 times the limit determined by state regulations, were "minimal," and that a pediatrician was on-site to test children. However, parents of course came forward with reports of their children's complaints of headaches, dizziness and nausea. One parent, Leona Johnson, told NBC her daughter, now 24 years old, graduated from the school back in 1997 and continues to suffer health problems. The parent of a 7-year-old is being told to have the girl's heart checked out.

Reports NY1, "Parents said they did not think the chancellor admitting the city made a mistake and apologizing was enough." The rage of a horde of parents has probably never been more succinctly understated.


Dennis Walcott's word is worth nothing.

The events around the DOE's handling of PS 52 prove that statement.

Walcott says PS 114 is safe.

Parents should believe that as much as they believe Richard Nixon's "Your President Is Not A Crook!" speech.

We have evidence from the very recent past that the NYCDOE and Chancellor Walcott knew that a school was unsafe for children, indeed Walcott had the test results IN HIS HAND - and they did nothing about it for months.

I said at the time that if even one person at the school comes down with cancer or any other illness attributed to the toxins, Walcott, Bloomberg and the NYCDOE are responsible.

The same is true at PS 114 and other Rockaway schools that have been opened with the DOE's assurance that all is well.

Walcott does not care about the health of children or the safety of the people in the schools.

He cares about the appaearance of those things.

Mostly he cares about making his boss happy by making things seem like they're back to normal.

So what if black mold is growing in the auditorium and behind the first floor walls of the school?

This is about making sure the kids get back to school.

There is no time to make sure this school is safe for kids and staff!

There is only time to get the kids ready for their standardized tests!

7 comments:

  1. Great blog post. There were no mold tests done, only visual inspection was performed and quality air tests were performed. No concrete details. Parents had a meeting with Department of Education officials who in part were contributing to a ps 114 opening. They did confirm that as of last Wednesday NO MOLD testing were performed, only visual inspections were performed and air quality tests were taken. All of our houses were affected by mold in the area, its just impossible that school in the middle of this neighborhood where water was present for so long did not have any traces of mold. Auditorium was not properly disinfected and cleaned and they did let our kids in there...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Why would anyone trust Walcott on any matter that relates to public health, education or safety? This is blog is beyond comprehension. The word should be gotten out that no child is safe in the PS 114 building. No child should return there. Children are actually in harm's way in all NY city public schools as a result of Walcott and Bloomberg. Think PCBs in the lighting fixures, Think Assbestos , .... Children of PS 114 , DO NOT RETURN TO THAT SCHOOL BUILDING!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Part of my last assignment as a TSI in the DOE was in PS 106 in District 32. My first room at that time was a split with the
    'resource room" teacher and another TSI. We had kids, parents, everyone passing through that room.At the beginning of the second year, myself, the other TSI and the resource room teacher were all moved out of that room,and we were told not to even go into it for our materials.Outside the room in a courtyardwas set up a large steel box with a biohazard symbol on them. Curious, I asked a member of the custodial staff what t was, to which he replied- Oh- its decontamination showers for the asbestos abatement workers. They're taking care of that stuff that gave those teachers cancer. When questioned, both the principal and uft rep professed ignorance. Hmmmmmmmmmm...

    ReplyDelete
  4. The building is not safe for anyone!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I live just down the block. I think I'll wear a mask when I walk by.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tell me....what are the symptoms of mold exposure? Is it dangerous long term?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I lived in a building that had a major fire on the top floor. The roof was burned off, the top floor was heavily damaged by fire and water. The landlord left the damage like that for a month - ostensibly so the insurance company could see the extent of the damage. But this was a very rainy May and between the rain and the water damage, the building became contaminated with mold. Mold grew everywhere - even on the walls of people on the other side of the building on the lower floors where no water or rain damage had occurred. People got sick from the mold - especially older people and children. It was very, very bad. If PS 114 has mold behind the walls of the auditorium, the spores can spread throughout the building pretty quickly. I've seen it happen in the building I lived in all those years ago where apartments nowhere near the fire or water damage were laden with mold.

      Delete