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School's air-quality issues costly for Houston district
http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=7289690&nav=0w0v
Associated Press - October 31, 2007 7:15 AM ET
HOUSTON (AP) - About 80% of the staff at a Houston middle school have filed workers' compensation claims.
The claims cite ailments the staff members at Key Middle School blame on the building's air quality.
In all, 88 employees of the northeast Houston school have filed claims with the Houston Independent School District. Teachers filed about half of the claims. Most say they were healthy before getting sick at the school, mainly with skin rashes, difficulty breathing and headaches.
The Houston Chronicle disclosed the claims after obtaining them under the Texas Public Information Act.
The district moved students out of the school late last month after staffers and students complained of ailments since school began August 27th.
School officials initially resisted calls by a teachers' union to vacate the school. But earlier this month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed mold was present at the school. It didn't say whether the mold was unsafe.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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November 1, 2007
Morning Roundup: That's gotta hurt edition
http://houstonist.com/2007/11/01/morning_roundup_195.php
>> The cost of sickness at Key: The saga of potential health hazards at HISD's Key Middle School isn't over yet, and the Chronicle reports that it's taken quite a toll on taxpayers: Since August, when problems surfaced at the campus, about 80 percent of the school's staff has filed workers' compensation claims totaling more than $127,000. Tens of thousands of dollars have already been paid out to cover medical expenses, testing and cleaning at the building — and the district isn't even sure what's causing the problems yet. "While I can't find a cause for their illness, I also can't say that there is nothing that could have caused the allergic reaction that some of these people might be complaining of," HISD risk management manager Brad Bailey told the Chron. Though a variety of investigators have been brought in to check out conditions at the Key campus, HISD is drawing fire for what some people claim was a slow, inadequate response to the problem. "Ray Charles could have walked through that school and found something," Gayle Fallon, head of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said. |
