|
Flores addresses mold problem at Southern High
After having Southern High School's gym shut down for health and safety violations, it looks like the mold isn't enough to do the same just yet. But while Department of Education officials are still discussing how to address the issue, it appears that one environmental company already suggested what needed to be done two years ago.
With DOE superintendent Juan Flores back on island, it was business as usual, starting with the growing issue of mold at Southern High's Santa Rita campus. Flores met with the faculty from the school this afternoon to discuss what options they want to explore in order to deal with the problem.
Explained Flores of his agenda today, "Some of their options including having double-session at Southern High so classrooms can be dealt with - those classrooms that need to be cleaned up and other kids can move into those classrooms so that if they're clean; the other issue is to wait until the new [air conditioning units] are in and then deal with cleaning the mold at the end of the school year when more extensive work can be done. The third issue is just to remove the students, faculty and staff right now and setup double-session at another school."
However as DOE officials expedite their efforts to find a solution it appears that the agency was already informed of what to do - nearly two years ago.
According to a letter KUAM News obtained dated January 22, 2003 from Unitek Environmental Guam president Leroy Moore to former Southern High principal Johnny Rivera, the former stated that the mold contamination within the building series 1000 through 5000 should be remediated immediately, as conditions there may result in various adverse health effects including allergic reactions, asthma attacks, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, irritant effects and opportunistic infections. As well, Moore suggested that it is possible that Aflatoxin B - a mold that when ingested can cause liver cancer and is suspected of causing lung cancer - may be present at the campus as well.
In light of the Department's budget crisis, Moore stated that its best bet would be to utilize its maintenance staff to perform the remediation. While DOE superintendent Flores confirms that DOE Maintenance did attempt to remove and clean tiles containing mold, KUAM News inquired with him as to whether DOE ever utilized the company's services (or any other environmental firm) since being notified of the potential health hazards that the mold could cause. Flores explained that because Unitek's assessment was never verified, in addition to neither the Guam Environmental Protection Agency nor the Department of Public Health issuing citations for the severity of the problem, DOE has not had a professional environmental firm address the remediation.
Said Flores, "The assessment made by that company was never verified by anybody, nobody said that what they said was correct and I'm very concerned with making sure that we don't just follow what a company says because that company has a vested interest in getting a contract to solve the problem in the first place."
Despite Flores' skepticism, he confirms that there have been reports of students and teachers complaining about respiratory problems. "There are people who have claimed that their asthma or some respiratory conditions have flared up when they come to school. I have not had anybody come to me with any medical verification that the only connection to those health problems is the mold at Southern High," he added.
In the meantime, Flores says that teachers will discuss the issue with students tomorrow, and on Thursday he will join the faculty in addressing the matter with parents. It should be noted that DOE maintains that despite any mold remediation efforts - once the direct expansion air conditioning units are installed in February, the agency anticipates that this will directly reduce the growth of the mold.
|