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Read this editorial criticizing the Houston Independent School District for not acting soon enough. when so many people were getting ill.
Sept. 20, 2007, 7:53PM
Lacks initiative: Too many Key Middle School teachers and staff got sick before HISD acted
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/5152957.html
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Test after test said there wasn't a problem.
The Houston Independent School District should have done more at the beginning, weeks before school started, when teachers told their union something inside Key Middle School was making them sick. When a science teacher was wheeled away ill on the first day of school, HISD should have put two and two together right then and started testing at once.
But it was only when several janitors on a routine cleanup chore were stricken with symptoms similar to the teachers' and were taken away by ambulance that HISD hired a private industrial consultant to find out what was up inside Key.
The firm — well-established with schools and oil companies — found no significant air problems, and city health officials agreed. HISD concluded that the janitors had been sickened by chlorine products.
Then more teachers got sick. More ambulances came screeching up. At least nine instructors were ultimately hauled away on gurneys. Yet the tests had said nothing was wrong, so Key Middle School stayed open.
Finally, on Monday, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee descended, safety mask clasped to her face and federal inspectors in tow. And this time the verdict was different. A director from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the presence of "potentially problematic" mold patches.
The dramatic inspection finally prompted HISD, which had accused the union of scare tactics, to do something. It will be clearing the school of students and teachers while the district scours for the source of the strange symptoms.
"Although the expert testing and analysis thus far has found no significant air quality issue," HISD spokesman Terry Abbott said, "we want to do everything we can to try to determine what, if anything, at the school has played a role in any person connected with the school feeling ill."
Abbott may have been trying to avoid a panic, but a half dozen ambulances in a few weeks probably already did the damage. Moving the students and faculty was a prudent step, both to calm the school community and, more important, remove them from any potential danger.
But parents and teachers have every right to ask: What took so long? In report card parlance, HISD lacked initiative.
If a student scores well on a test but can't read aloud from a book, it's an educator's duty to admit there's a problem. Similarly, if tests say a school's air quality is fine but the teachers are dropping like flies, there is something wrong with the testing.
Instead of leaving the school open after so much illness, HISD should have sought answers the moment a second teacher was taken off in an ambulance. It shouldn't have been left to Lee to bring in further experts. Any educator knows the rule: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again until there's an answer. And don't leave children in the building while you look.
COMMENTS
Diego-1 wrote:
No mention of the resulting blood tests on those who got sick? There are no medical tests to determine if it was mold and whether mold can cause someone to faint? If not say so, if no doctor's opinion say so. Why not?
9/21/2007 4:30:10 AM
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countryspace wrote:
All we hear about are the adults getting sick; have any students gotten sick? Could this be more about an adult process for getting attention to the school for needed repairs?
9/21/2007 7:24:56 AM
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gayle2415 wrote:
For those who continue to assume the teachers at Key are faking, consider the following:
264 students had been to the clinic as of Sept 18 - that is over 1/3 of the entire student body
of the student whose parents came to get them, 14 have reported they are on ongoing medication
one student left campus in an ambulance with a serious asthma attack
two parents collapsed in the Key cafeteria on Sept 20
There is a big difference in how students and adults who beconme ill leave the campus. When the children become ill, generally their mother comes and gets them. When a teacher becomes ill, usuially their mommy doesn't come rushing up to school to take them to the doctor - they drive themselves or leave in an ambulance. Think about it.
Additionally, the medical information shared with us by teachers is consistent with an air borne allegren or mold.
Gayle Fallon, President
HFT
Gayle Fallon
9/21/2007 8:25:50 AM
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BearDog wrote:
This is all about suing someone and getting paid for not working. Otherwise, why are no children getting sick?
9/21/2007 8:31:52 AM
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mef wrote:
HISD administrators are always in constant denial. Too ashamed to admit they are wrong and too slow to repair any damages and they want us to approve their bond proposal??? They don't care about the children, they only care about the bottom line. Gayle Fallon, wish you were the superintendent, at least the children and teachers will be your real priority.
9/21/2007 9:14:59 AM
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benignmoderate wrote:
"A director from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the presence of 'potentially problematic' mold patches."
Where are all the posters that cried "fakers!" yesterday???
9/21/2007 11:42:53 AM
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BetterGenes wrote:
Ok.. first of all... Sheila Jackson-Lee's silly mask stunt was not protective of her, it was a surgical mask, not an N95 mask. The fact that the Chron fell for her bit of theater is very disappointing. Where is the thoughtful, critical reporting?
I feel sorry for David Neleigh, the EPA administrator coerced into 'inspecting' the school with a congresswoman. The poor EPA administrator has no choice, politically, but to be agreeable to the congresswoman as it was her grandstand. However, his comment was couched carefully, as one would expect from an experienced professional: "a qualified professional, a mold expert, should look at them." It has been reported clearly that HISD did, indeed, have a qualified mold expert examine the school. Why was this important fact not revealed in this piece?
Gayle, I'm not impressed with the lack of detail in the numbers there. The kind of hysteria (the correct term is Mass Sociogenic Illness) created by the union's histrionics is well-documented in the psychology literature to be harmful to children and adults alike. I suggest a bit of reading: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001618.htm
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/180/4/300
While it may well be prudent to give the school another looking over, it may also be wise to do psychological workups on the teachers affected and see if they have predispositions to hysteria.
With all due respect to the editors of the Houston Chronicle, what is lacking in initiative here is clear, incisive and intelligent reporting. At the VERY least, give some credence to the extremely high likelihood that this is Mass Sociogenic Illness. It bears all the hallmark signs and we deserve a more critical analysis by our newspaper.
9/21/2007 8:53:18 PM
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