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A courageous, mold-ill teacher who won her Worker's Comp case and is fighting to receive justice and work accommodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act: read all stories below and our Real Testimonies page.
Angela Page with her gas mask. Photo by Michael Weisbrot Photos (from NYSUT article, below)
http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/06-01-26/head1-mold.html
Mold a growing problem locally and nationally
Remediation is easy but often costly
By FRITZ MAYER
LIBERTY, NY — Parents are worried that mold in school buildings are making their children sick. On Thursday, January 19, about 24 concerned parents and residents showed up a meeting of Healthy Schools Healthy Kids (HSHK) to plan a course of action on how to deal with the issue of mold in the schools.
Terry Planica, a teacher in the Liberty Middle School, said when her “students come back from music class, they complain of headaches” and other symptoms. The music room is in the basement.
Sharon Gates took her 16-year-old daughter to the doctor for coughing, vomiting and other symptoms. She suspects mold at the school may be the problem because her daughter’s symptoms diminish when she’s not in school.
The Liberty board of education has pledged to spend $300,000 to correct the problem, but members of HSHK say they are not doing it correctly and may be exacerbating the problem.
Liberty is hardly alone. The Sullivan West school board has hired a consultant to determine if there is still mold at the high school in Lake Huntington. Members of HSHK said a teacher, who has been disabled by mold, is suing the Fallsburg Central School system, though a spokeswoman for the superintendent said “there is no mold problem.”
On the national level, hundreds of schools are dealing with mold complaints.
Dr. David Strauss, a professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Texas Tech University, said mold became a serious issue in buildings in the United States beginning in the 1970s.
“Two things have changed. First, we build our buildings tight,” he said.
In the ’70s, when energy prices started to soar, buildings were made much tighter to save money on cooling and heating. That also meant that when mold spores are released into the air in the building, there is no way for them to get out.
The other thing that changed is the universal use of sheet rock instead of plaster. Strauss said “sheet rock is really a paper sandwich. It has paper on both sides,” and mold loves paper and sheetrock.
Appearing on the public radio station WJFF, Strauss said that mold reproduces by sending spores into the air. It has long been known that human inhalation of large concentrations of mold spores causes a variety of respiratory diseases.
“Molds also produce mycotoxins, which are really nothing more than fungal poisons. Certainly they produce these poisons when they grow inside buildings.” Strauss said the group he works with is working to determine whether mycotoxins occur in sufficient quantities to cause illness in humans.
According to the National Institutes of Health, patients who have been exposed indoors to molds, spores and mycotoxins show symptoms of asthma, airway irritation and bleeding, dizziness, and impaired memory and concentration. Other experts say exposure to mold spores and mycotoxins can cause hypersensitivity pneumonitis, a lung disease, and “multiple chemical sensitivities.”
Some of these illnesses can become very serious and debilitating, especially if caused by chronic exposures to the mold spores over a long period of time.
Virtually everyone agrees that the way to get rid of mold in a building is to prevent water and dampness from coming into the building, and then to get rid of any materials, such as sheetrock and ceiling tiles, that have been contaminated.
But preventing water infiltration can be expensive, especially in cases where the school building has been built in a wet area or on a spring. Remedies in such situations can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But if the water is not stopped from getting into the building, the mold will certainly return.
Getting rid of the mold requires specific procedures. According to Anthony Hibbert, a consultant who conducts mold inspections and performs mold remediation, contaminated material can be removed from a school building while the students are still using the school. But the area being decontaminated must be contained. Plastic sheeting must be in place to prevent the mold spores from spreading to the occupied areas of the building. When workers start tearing apart sheetrock, the spores from the mold can be spread through the building, sometimes making the problem worse.
At Thursday’s meeting of HSHK, Liberty Central School Board of Education President David Burke invited members to attend a meeting of the school’s Facilities and Planning Committee to get information about the steps being taken to remedy the mold problem. The members of the group are going to take him up on the invitation. They will try to ensure that the mold remediation is done by using the best industry practices.
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Former librarian wins compensation claim
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070312/NEWS/703120344
March 12, 2007
Embattled former Liberty High School librarian Angela Page won a major decision against the district that is trying to fire her.
The New York State Worker's Compensation Review Board ruled Friday against the district in their appeal of her workman's compensation claim. Page filed for the workman's compensation in September of 2005 after being on sick leave for a year.
Page said she developed multiple chemical hypersensitivities from exposure to mold at the library due to a leaking roof. The workman's compensation board concurred in its initial decision handed down last year.
The Liberty district has 30 days to make a final appeal in court. Superintendent Ed Rhyne said the school's attorneys would be reviewing the decision.
Page still has to file a separate workman's compensation for her time out of work since July of 2006. Meanwhile, the district is moving forward to fire Page. A hearing is scheduled March 26 at the Liberty Firehouse before an adjudicator from the state Education Department to determine whether the school can strip her of tenure, a precursor to firing her.
The teacher's union was expected to present a petition at tonight's board meeting in support of Page.
Page said she wants to return to work in a new capacity as a grant writer or book ordering and cataloging for the library to avoid direct contact with students. She says her sickness prevents that. She often has to use a respirator due to burning of her lungs. Rhyne calls Page's proposals "unreasonable."
Nathan Mayberg
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Poisoned by school mold, librarian fights for her career
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity renders Angela Page a virtual recluse
New York Teacher - June 4, 2007
Angela Page with her gas mask. Photo by Michael Weisbrot Photos.
One day at the Liberty Middle School library where Angela Page had worked since it opened in 1991, the librarian went to retrieve a book from the shelf. She felt how slimy it was as it slipped through her hands, and then she herself slipped to the floor.
Page blacked out. When she came to, she crawled out of the library and into the hall, where she lay at the bottom of the steps until a teacher found her.
Lying there, Page realized why she was always getting sick in the library. The book was covered with mold from water leaking through the ceiling and seeping between and into the particle-board shelving.
The exposure to mold had knocked her out. Most libraries are known for bright posters, student art projects and the latest books; this one has been decked out with buckets and tarps since it opened.
Page became so ill with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity she has barely been able to leave her house - much less return to work in the Sullivan County school where she had been employed. In November 2004, the state Workers' Compensation Board ruled she had a work-related injury and hypersensitivity reaction due to "occupational presence of fungi."
The diagnosis was later expanded to MCS. The district appealed. In March, she won a case before a three-member panel of the appellate board for Workers' Compensation, which agreed with three doctors specializing in mold exposure that Page has MCS, caused by the library conditions. They cited "credible, medical evidence to support the finding of causally related MCS."
She received last year's pay. This came after living on no income during the long resolution of the workers' comp case. Page was paying $1,100 a month for health insurance for herself and her children.
Page's quest is more far-reaching than a compensation case - she wants her career back (see article at left).
The district tried to force her to retire by filing retirement papers without telling her, according to Page and Liberty Faculty Association President Tim Hamblin. Page retracted the filing and refused to retire, choosing to make a stand for working with a disability.
The school district then raised the stakes, seeking to revoke her tenure and dismiss her for failing to come to work in the very place where she became ill.
Like a teacher, a librarian can lose tenure - and her job - under Section 3020-a of State Education Law if the district can prove incompetence or misconduct.
Hearings on her case continue in July.
"I'm fighting to be accommodated, just like anyone with a disability," Page said.
Solidarity
Colleagues support Angela Page, including Liberty TA President Tim Hamblin, center, in white shirt.
"Students, teachers and staff are jeopardized when chronic safety problems are ignored," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "Nobody's place of work should make them sick."
Members of her union, the Liberty FA, have defended Page throughout the proceedings. They have demonstrated at school board meetings with signs declaring "Accommodate, Don't Terminate."
Local President Hamblin said Page's case is precedent-setting.
"There have been some other medical issues with some staff members," he said. Two teachers with health issues were moved to the elementary school, Hamblin said. They had been working in science labs, located above the library.
Hamblin, who worked in the middle school until last year, said the library and other places had extensive leaks.
"Different parts of the hall would leak in the corridor connecting middle school and high school," he said. "They always had buckets in that corridor." The school was built in a wet area.
In monthly meetings with administrators, representatives of the 170-member faculty association pressed concerns about the leaks.
To date, the carpet has been taken up and damaged ceiling tiles have been replaced, Hamblin said. Damaged books have been removed and work continues on the roof. Voters approved a referendum authorizing more work this summer.
"We thought they would totally gut it," Hamblin said. "They didn't."
The corrective actions have taken years.
"I remember when we had open house in 1991, there were leaks," Hamblin said.
Buckets were placed under the leaks. When the leaking worsened, Page would go in to the school on weekends and empty the buckets.
Students would trip over the "omnipresent" buckets, Page said, and the rug was always wet. The district had the Sullivan County BOCES safety coordinator come in, and different molds were found.
The union paid for a mold and radon inspection, which determined the library was not a safe space, Page said.
When the district had the rug torn up over spring break in 2004, there was no machine to create a negative air flow and no containment. Mold spores swept through the air.
Huge shelving units in the library housed moldy books. Page said when the shelves buckled from leaking water, they were bolted back into place, rather than being replaced.
She began getting mildly sick in 2002. Then she started fainting. "I'd get dizzy and start stumbling around," she said.
Her doctor thought perhaps she needed more exercise, so she joined a gym and worked out every morning. By January 2004, she was so tired every day she felt disoriented.
"We had a lot of snow and a lot of melting and leaking," she said. One day that month she came to work and the library ceiling was on the floor, she said.
By February, the library reeked. One morning, within an hour of arriving, she fainted. Her body stiffened. She went to the doctor, reporting, "It feels like I've been poisoned."
She was thought first to have the flu, and then a sinus infection.
Like any astute librarian, Page went by the book. She mailed some of the library's holdings to the Center for Indoor Research at Texas Technical University, which she said reported nearly 1 million mold-colony-forming units per square inch on some of the books.
"What was alarming beyond the amount was the varieties of molds, showing the problem has been growing," she said.
Unable to work at the school any longer, she left in June 2004.
The union and the district sought help from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for problems at the middle school and some air quality problems at the elementary school. Hamblin said 20 middle school teachers filed paperwork with health complaints.
In December 2005, NIOSH declared health hazards at the Liberty schools, noting persistent leaks, mold on murals and rotted wood. (See www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/reports/pdfs/2005-0033-2984.pdf.)
When the local newspaper reported the NIOSH finding, more than 100 concerned parents and teachers flocked to the school board meeting, but only three public statements were taken before the meeting was closed, Page said. At that same meeting, the board voted surreptitiously to submit Page's application for retirement, she said.
Page has regularly gone to the occupational health clinic at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, part of the State University of New York, to help with diagnosis and learn how to avoid exposure. "They are extremely helpful and very knowledgeable," she said.
"Given the issues surrounding this facility, this is one more example of why it is critical to maintain Upstate Medical University," said Iannuzzi.
Compromised
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity - MCS - has compromised Page's life. Her daughter Miranda spent her sophomore year living with friends and her father a half hour away, because Page was too ill to care for her.
When Miranda comes into the house from school, she's covered with scents the average person wouldn't notice: lingering perfume and deodorant that friends might have worn, paper products she's touched, shampoo or laundry soap clinging to clothes from a friendly hug someone gave her.
She has to go through a plastic barricade, bag her clothes and use special shower products to remove hidden scents before she can say hello to her mom.
Otherwise, the scents are unbearable for Page. Any airborne propellant like perfume "goes right to our brain. We (MCS sufferers) have no more blood brain barrier. It's like suffocating," said Page.
Page's longtime partner, John, and his son moved across the street - the daily routine was too much stress.
John, formerly a network administrator for the Liberty district, was bringing home fragrances and mold spores from the middle school, which Page could not tolerate.
He took a job with a different school district a long commute away.
Mold triggered her condition. Eventually, Page said, she was unable to process any petroleum byproduct, such as laundry detergent, or chemical fragrances added to personal products such as lotions, shampoos, air fresheners or dryer sheets, whose softness comes from a chemical coating.
"When I first got sick I slept all the time and couldn't function. I couldn't leave the room without burning lungs," said Page.
Eventually, hungry to go outside, she found an opening in the imprisonment of her illness.
"After spending about four months isolated in one room for good breathing - with the metal bed frame and non-toxic mattress only - I began walking to the nearby graveyard where the wind is always fresh and clean," Page said.
She would go before dawn, before buses and cars hit the road, walking a loop around the headstones. She wears a bulky mask.
Graveyard walks
"I would often cry there, and it wouldn't matter if someone sees you crying in a graveyard," Page said.
Former teacher friends and former students are buried at this Liberty graveyard, which Page calls "a connection to life and death and community."
Page began seeing a therapist, who would meet her at the cemetery.
"We walked or sat in the good air, so I could not react to his personal products and because I could not tolerate his office," she said.
- Liza Frenette
Printer Friendly | E-Mail to a Friend The path back to workAngela Page wants to reinvent her life's work as a librarian.
Page can create customized Web sites for each teacher to direct individual research. If students are studying World War II, Page can march ahead and filter through thousands of bits of information, presenting reliable sites for students to begin their study.
"I can do that for the whole school. I can also do videoconferencing. Why can't I be in my kitchen?" Page asked. "Much of my work was online research assistance, providing home use of databases and making customized Web sites."
The virtual librarian job she wants to create, she said, is a national trend in the field.
"I can podcast, or blog my lessons to them. I'm a very tech-savvy person," she said. "Teachers don't have this kind of time, and sources for research go way beyond books these days."
Although her illness grounds her at home for most activities, Page is a person who sees quite clearly beyond the confines of her illness. She has the passion for her work. She sees how technology is behind the stacks of any modern library keeping pace.
Resources availableNYSUT recommends locals maintain active health and safety committees.
If a local encounters a problem it feels is beyond its expertise, local leaders can call NYSUT Health and Safety Specialist Wendy Hord, (800) 342-9810.
For more informationVisit NYSUT's Workplace Health & Safety Resource Center online at www.nysut.org.
NYSUT.org | About NYSUT | Terms of Use | Contact
NYSUT: A Union of Professionals. NYSUT represents more than 585,000 teachers, school-related professionals, academic and professional faculty in higher education, professionals in education and health care and retirees. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and the AFL-CIO. NYSUT.org. Copyright New York State United Teachers. 800 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham, New York, 12110-2455. 518.213.6000. For questions about this web site, contact the webmaster at
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.
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The path back to work
http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/newyorkteacher_7902.htm
Angela Page wants to reinvent her life's work as a librarian.
Page can create customized Web sites for each teacher to direct individual research. If students are studying World War II, Page can march ahead and filter through thousands of bits of information, presenting reliable sites for students to begin their study.
"I can do that for the whole school. I can also do videoconferencing. Why can't I be in my kitchen?" Page asked. "Much of my work was online research assistance, providing home use of databases and making customized Web sites."
The virtual librarian job she wants to create, she said, is a national trend in the field.
"I can podcast, or blog my lessons to them. I'm a very tech-savvy person," she said. "Teachers don't have this kind of time, and sources for research go way beyond books these days."
Although her illness grounds her at home for most activities, Page is a person who sees quite clearly beyond the confines of her illness. She has the passion for her work. She sees how technology is behind the stacks of any modern library keeping pace.
Resources available
NYSUT recommends locals maintain active health and safety committees.
If a local encounters a problem it feels is beyond its expertise, local leaders can call NYSUT Health and Safety Specialist Wendy Hord, (800) 342-9810.
For more information
Visit NYSUT's Workplace Health & Safety Resource Center online at www.nysut.org.
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Liberty NY Schools' Mold Update: Feb. 23, 2006
The River Reporter
Narrrowsburg, NY
Feb. 23 - Mar.3, 2006
My View
Mold in the schools
I was at the Liberty Board of Education meeting on February 13. A group of very concerned parents and citizens has
been pushing the board for almost a year to address the issue of children and staff getting sick in the three schools.
This board is now claiming that it is doing something, but let’s look at what they are, in fact, doing.
For 13 years, the custodial staff has been “fixing” the problems of mold by replacing ceiling tiles, pulling up rugs and
trying to stop water incursions. But teachers and custodial staff have been getting sick for years, without knowing
why. The board of education, in private session, approved the retirement of the librarian, who became sick while
doing her job in the leaking middle school library. I believe many teachers are now intimidated and fear for their
jobs if they come forward.
At the board of education meeting on December 12, 2005, there was a large group of people who wanted to have
input in the public participation portion. The president closed the question-and-answer period after a couple of
questions. Instead, the president and board should be actively soliciting questions and participation from the
community they represent.
They hired building scientists to do a minimal structural study rather than hire certified industrial hygienists, who sign
a code of ethics. They were given names of people with decades of experience, certified industrial hygienists and
toxicologists, who never agree to compromise or ignore the health of building occupants, but they didn’t use them.
Both the president of the board, David Burke, and the superintendent of schools, Larry Clarke, refused to allow
anyone to videotape the presentation by consulting firm Camroden during the open session. This frustrated parents
who wanted to have accurate records of the report by Camroden. Please note that earlier in the public portion of the
meeting, parents were allowed to video student presentations to the public and students receiving awards.
When a parent complained that she had not been told of any water incursions, preventing her from making informed
decisions about sending her child to school, the superintendent noted that water is used for cleaning, and said all
problems were being taken care of. He did not address the right of parents to make decisions on behalf of their own
children for their children’s health.
A public meeting was held on January 20 outside the school. The four board members, whose seats are up for
election, were invited. Many community members showed up, but only the president of the board did.
What about the health and safety of our children, whose bodies are growing and are most susceptible to the effects
of the mold and mycotoxins that were demonstrated to be present six months ago? How can a 13-year-old problem
be “fixed” without stopping the water incursions—something that has not happened? I am wondering how
Camroden came up with a clean bill of health for the schools. And I am disturbed that they say remediation is not
necessary, without bothering to do air testing. I am concerned that they admitted they don’t know much about the
relationship between mold and human health.
Meanwhile, our children and teachers are in a clearly unsafe building by definition, according to the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Institute of Medicine and all
credible authorities: it is a very wet building that has grown mold.
Padma Dyvine
Liberty, NY
Liberty Schools Wet Buildings Are Not Moldy (see if you think this is believable, after checking with the EPA and IOM
documents on this site!) If so, it will be the first building in history to be saturated with water for 15 years and not
grow molds and bacteria - but wait! High levels of mold have been documented, previously, staff and child illnesses
are being reported and documented, the librarian was confirmed to have been disabled by the mold in the library,
and visible mold and profuse leaks and flooding continue to be reported ... we understand why the article says this
report was met with suspicion.
Our question is: what may be growing behind the wet walls, ceilings, and floors, throughout the school? What
biologicals are in the air right now? Will the community recognize the problems they are faced with and take action
to help their children? Will they insist that their investments, the town's schools, be maintained in top condition, with
the source of all this water eliminated and the damage it has done addressed according to the highest standards?
Will the townspeople insist that they are given the steps to the plan the school district has been following to correct
the high levels of mold? Will they insist on highly trained mold professionals consulting and doing the work, rather
than district personnel, for a very expensive set of buildings financed by the taxpayers? Has only the visible mold
been addressed? Will they realize that, improperly remediated, when mold is disturbed without containment, much
like asbestos, severe and extensive illness can follow?
We think that the children and the town deserves the highest standards, as all Americans have the right to safe,
healthy schools and workplaces. Will the people of the town see to it that this is accomplished?
To read all about Liberty, NY's school mold problems, click on Press Coverage on Liberty Schools' Mold for past
several months (Nov.05 - Jan.06)article links. The problems described in these articles are typical scenarios
representing how school workers, parents, and students are treated when school mold is discovered and people
report illness or concerns about the mold. Also, read about Angela Page and her experience as the Liberty School
Librarian in a very moldy school library on our Real Testimonies page.
12/05 News Flash!
Article #1 (12/9/05): Click NIOSH Report Finds Mold in All Three Liberty Schools
"December 09, 2005
Inspectors find mold in 3 Liberty schools
Health problems in the schools
By Heather Yakin
Times Herald-Record
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Liberty - Persistent leaks, mold growing on murals, rotted wood - these are just a few of the things that the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found at Liberty's schools.
In all three schools, NIOSH investigators found places where water was seeping - and in some cases, running - into
the structures. NIOSH also found a pattern of health problems, including sore throats, headaches and numbness
among teachers.
For longtime middle school librarian Angela Page, the findings weren't a surprise. She is currently on worker's
compensation leave because of neurotoxic poisoning from mold in the library. Serious leaks from the ceiling sent
water down onto the shelves and books. A tarp that has been rigged up for years, funneling runoff into buckets, was
photographed in the report.
"I've dumped buckets for 13 years," she said.
And that's just one room.
NIOSH inspectors found some visible mold and active leaks in the middle school, and signs of leaks in the other two
schools. Liberty Superintendent Lawrence Clarke said the district started moving to correct problems, even before
NIOSH visited the schools in June at the teachers' request for a health hazard evaluation.
A major renovation of the middle school is scheduled to start in the spring. The district started planning the repairs
after a 2004 architectural review of the building cataloged the leaks.
"We want to get these things addressed and fixed so we can move on," Clarke said.
NIOSH found that the middle school was "very clean and well kept," and that many repairs had been done to try to
fix the leak problems since the school was built in 1991. But NIOSH noted tarps and buckets in the library, containers
on windowsills to catch leaks, and similar problems.
Teachers reported migraines, watery eyes, sore throats and coughs. All can be symptoms of moldy or damp environs,
NIOSH said.
Page said she's heard of students and teachers who have symptoms similar to what she experienced in 2004 before
her immune system buckled under a cascade of reactions to what her doctor said was long-term exposure to molds.
Page's exposure was intense. She worked full time in the middle school library, where the leaks triggered mold
growth on books, shelves and carpeting.
She wants the school to monitor symptoms that could be caused by mold or dampness, like asthma or bronchitis. And
she wants the district to make sure the problems are fixed insteading of slapping on a new roof.
"I want nobody to go through what I have," Page said.
Clarke said NIOSH's findings will be discussed at Monday's school board meeting.
"We as a district have been throwing money at this for years," Clarke said. "And it's time to do it right."
Article #2 (12/16/05): Click District Plans Response to Mold (see below)
Sullivan County Democrat
Callicoon, New York
December 16, 2005 Issue National Award-winning, Family-run Newspaper
Established 1891 www.sc-democrat.com
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District Plans Response to Mold
By Nathan Mayberg
LIBERTY — After 13 years of complaining about moldy conditions and a leaking roof at the Liberty Middle School
Library, Angela Page, the school’s librarian, was able to get the federal government to document the safety hazards
and issue a report on them.
Her reward?
A unanimous decision by the Liberty Central School District Monday to force her into retirement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, a
division of the United States Department of Health and Family Services) has issued a detailed and lengthy report
which identifies a host of health threats caused by mold, water leaks and damage.
Among the areas cited for mold damage were the Middle School stairwell and mural. The south side of the school
was cited for numerous water leaks around its windows. One boiler room in the elementary school was found to
have water incursion. Rusty and possibly moldy blinds were located in the high school library.
The full report can be found on the Internet at www.libertyk12.org/ niosh/reports.shtml.
According to NIOSH, the request for the report on the elementary school was initially made by the district’s faculty
union, but the request on the middle and high school was officially made by Superintendent Lawrence Clarke. The
list of health concerns brought by teachers included respiratory problems, allergies, asthma, rashes, sinus problems,
headaches and numbness. The issuance of the report and the word that Page would be forced to retire sent over 100
parents, students, and teachers to the Board of Education meeting Monday. But most of their voices were silenced
through the actions of the board, led by President David Burke. Burke limited public comment at the start of the
meeting to just a few speakers. He said anybody who wished to speak about the NIOSH report must choose a
representative to speak for them. A number of parents and teachers spoke out in disgust, and many walked out.
Among those who signed up to comment was Miranda Hardy, a student in the high school and the daughter of Page.
When asked why she wasn’t allowed to be heard, Burke told her the board was following its own procedure which
allows meetings to move on and be more productive.
Although the policy was adopted in 1999, it had rarely, if ever, been enforced, according to people who had attended
meetings in the past.
“If you want to write us, you can,” said Burke to those who protested his clamping down on public comment.
“We’re not going to have a debate on it.” “Isn’t this America?” responded one woman.
And at least one person pointed out that Burke could be misinterpreting the board’s own policy. The policy says that
any group or organization wishing to address the board must identify a single spokesperson. He referred to some
people as belonging to the NIOSH group – although there was no such group. The same parent recommended that
the board revisit its public comment policy. Hardy was ultimately allowed to comment on her mother’s forced
retirement at the end of the meeting after most of the people had already left. She asked if the school had a policy
on how to act if a teacher or student gets sick from mold. Clarke said there is no policy, but there is a written
procedure. Throughout the back-and-forth, there was no comment by the rest of the board. Outside the meeting, John
Buchanan voiced his displeasure with the actions. “I am really concerned by this. This doesn’t seem like democracy
at all. There were a lot of people there who wanted to speak about this issue.”
John Webber said, “Everyone here is a part of a community. We all want to be treated like a community.”
One of the few allowed to speak was Sue Huggler, head of the union representing teachers’ assistants and aides.
She used to work in the coal bin room at the elementary school, which allegedly had high amounts of carbon
dioxide in the air. The room is used for classrooms. She said she has suffered many respiratory problems as a result.
She called on the board to close the room as recommended by the NIOSH report. “We have a right to a safe working
environment,” she said.
Gary Sawyer, the Director of Facilities for the district, was asked to give a presentation on what the school is doing to
address the issues made in the report. He began in hushed voice but was urged by the crowd to speak up. He stated
that all areas where mold was identified have been cleaned up. Windows still need to be replaced, he said. Air
sampling will be conducted by Sullivan County BOCES, he stated.
Sawyer admitted that there are “a lot of things we haven’t gotten to yet.” He said he had a limited staff which is
doing the best it can. After he spoke, Sawyer attempted to leave the building but was stopped by some in the crowd
who urged him to stay and answer questions. However, Sawyer never had to answer any questions from the public,
as most of them were not allowed to speak. Former Board President Philip Olsen noted the district’s residents
approved a $375,000 renovation project for the middle school, which is expected to remediate a longstanding
drainage issue at the school. The school was controversially built on a damp parcel which has had leaking problems
since it was first constructed.
Olsen said that part of the project will replace the roof at the middle school library, which has been the focal point of
Page’s concerns for the last 13 years. Burke said the board will review the bids in private this Thursday. Local
resident Padme Devine asked if the public would be invited to ensure the contractor who is hired is qualified. Burke
said that was not the normal practice, and there were no indications that the meeting would be opened to the public.
She also questioned whether the board was attacking the problems in the right manner. She was among those,
including Page, who support the hiring of a toxicologist to handle the work.
“I am very, very concerned about the health of our kids here,” Devine said. Anthony Hibbert, who runs Perfect
House – a home consulting business which provides professional home and mold inspections, mold removal, radon
and water testing services – recommended hiring an industrial hygienist. He said there is a specific procedure in
removing mold. If not followed correctly, people could become sicker, he said.
He said simply hiring an architect to make renovations, as the board had said it was doing, would not be enough.
The problem could get worse, and it would only make the school pay more in the long run. Burke then said he
agreed and called Hibbert’s advice a very good recommendation.
Tim Hamblin, the president of the Liberty Faculty Association (the teachers’ union), called the action by the board to
place Page on involuntary retirement “intolerable.” He said Page wasn’t allowed to return to work due to the
unhealthy atmosphere of her work environment. He said the board should solve the safety hazards so she can return.
He also alleged that the board had put the fear of retribution into teachers by retaliating against others who
complained in the past about work conditions. Burke defended the board’s response to the matter by pointing to the
$375,000 renovation project. He said the board was the first to tackle a problem that has been ongoing for more than
a decade.
“We are going to do whatever needs to be done,” he said. Clarke said the project would include roofing, chimney
work, drainage work to mitigate water runoff, landscaping to protect soil from sliding into the building, and sealing
windows from water leakage.
Both Burke and Clarke declined to comment on the forced retirement of Page, citing it as a personnel matter.
On Tuesday, Page said she had been told the district had submitted papers to the New York State Teachers’
Retirement System for her disability retirement. The union is working on her behalf, she said.
But Page wanted to concentrate more on the health hazards she believed still remain in the school. She said the
conditions in the library where she used to work were so harmful, she started fainting. Toxins from constantly
breathing in the mold overwhelmed her immune system. Her system has been penetrated so deeply, she can’t
tolerate gas or perfume. She wears a respirator when she goes out in public. She hasn’t worked in over a year.
The library was bleached, but that only made the mold grow more toxic, she said. For 13 years, the roof leaked,
causing the ceiling to collapse and the rug to be replaced. Shelves fell down, books became moldy and had to be
discarded. It was in the process of examining such books that Page said she was exposed most significantly.
She said there are many toxic threats in the school which need to be dealt with by professionals who deal with such
chemicals.
“Our children deserve nothing less than a safe place to go to school. My issue has become secondary next to the
larger health issue,” she said."
Click NIOSH Liberty School District, Liberty, NY Report to read the full NIOSH Report, issued in November, 2005.
Also, read Angela Page's full testimony, with photos, on our Real Testimonies page !
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