The Center for School Mold Help

Angela Page with her gas mask. Photo by Michael Weisbrot Photos / Liberty Middle School cafeteria flooded during a 2006 winter mudslide that entered through the rear wall ventilation system

Liberty Middle School is a poorly designed school built on a swamp, into the side of a hill; has very poor drainage (often causing flooding), condensation problems, window leaks, and a very leaky flat roof (profuse leaks since Day 1). Ongoing problems pictured above.

Dec. 17th: Angela Page has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit ...

 Angela Page, Liberty School District's courageous, disabled librarian, with a Worker's Compensation finding that she was poisoned by school mold while at her job, was fired on Dec. 11, 2007 by her local Board of Education. This same BOE has allowed the children of Liberty to attend unhealthy schools and turned its back on Ms. Page, who wished to receive accommodations to continue to work. Now, Ms. Page has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit alleging disability discrimination (SMH).

Update: Angela Page has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit following her firing - click here to read more.

For more information on this librarian's own testimony, pictures and multiple articles, click here.

Read NY Teacher's Union article: Poisoned by school mold, librarian fights for her career 

To read about another Liberty school employee with a severe illness that may be related to the unhealthy schools click here.

To read an appeal by Angela's daughter, published 12/11/07 in the Sullivan County Democrat, click here.

To read all Press Coverage, ever published, about Angela Page and the Liberty Schools mold, click here.

Liberty Middle School Photos: Library, Ceiling of Library, Library Book, Cafeteria, Soaked Ceiling Tiles Fallen in Teacher's Lounge

 
Ted Waddell | Democrat
PADMA DYVINE SPOKE out against the firing of Angela Page by the Liberty CS Board of Education at last Tuesday’s board meeting.

http://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/content/view/960/33/

Liberty School Board Fires Librarian
http://www.sc-democrat.com/news/12December/18/liberty.htm
Sullivan County Democrat

By Ted Waddell
LIBERTY – The axe fell on Liberty Middle School librarian Angela “Angie” Page, a tenured employee who was forced to flee her job after exposure to mold.

The Liberty Board of Education, at the Tuesday, December 11 meeting, voted 6-1 (with two abstentions) to fire her.
Board members voting to terminate were President David L. Burke, Michael McGuire, Joyce Burnett, Phil Olsen, Daniel Parkhurst, Cathie Smith; opposing the firing was Andy Kavleski; abstaining were John Milano and Joyce Teed

.
Page was hired by the district in 1983 as an elementary school librarian, and after the leak-prone middle school was constructed in 1991, moved up a few grades to the new middle school library, and began reporting ceiling leaks to the current administration.

In 2003, Page started to smell “mold created as a consequence on mildewed library books,” according to NYS Education Department File No. 6,431, a report /finding of disciplinary charges brought by the district against Page, prepared by Dennis J. Campagna, a mediator representing the NYS ED Office of Employer-Employee Relations.

According to Page, a tenured employee with 23 years service at the district, she has not been able to work at the school since June 2004 as her sensitivity to moldy books evolved into a case of multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), further compounding medical issues.
Page eventually won a worker’s compensation claim, but it was appealed in June 2006 and her regular pay and benefits were suspended.
After her accumulated sick days ran out in March 2007, things started to get tough for the sick librarian and mother of three, as her reported $81,701salary evaporated and the district ramped up efforts to fire her for alleged “incompetence”.

The district charged that Page “has been absent from work on each and every one of the scheduled work days of the 2004-2005 school year, the 2005-2006 school year, and the 2006-2007 school year… her absences have had a detrimental impact on students and the school district.”
But the former middle school librarian said working with the school’s moldy books made her sick and unable to work.
“Sometime in late 2003, the respondent (Page) began to smell mold created as a consequence on mildewed library books,” continued Campagna. “Subsequent to respondent’s initial exposure to mold toxins, she began experiencing breathing difficulties… symptoms worsened during the winter and spring 2004 as she continued working in the middle school library. On February 3, 2004, respondent entered the library, testified to smelling a horrible odor and fainted within one hour. The respondent ‘crawled’ out of the library and sought medical attention…”
After Page re-shelved approximately 14,000 books, the district temporarily closed the library to repair roof leaks, replaced water damaged ceiling tiles and ripped out carpeting, replacing it with floor tiles, but the library continued to leak, forcing a second short-term closure.
In the wake of air sample testing, Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, Page’s treating physician said, “Based on my evaluation… and my review of her medical history and environmental reports, it is my opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that she has become disabled for all occupations following occupational exposure to resident toxigenic organisms including fungi, growing in water damaged areas of her workplace.”
While then superintendent of schools Lawrence Clarke offered Page a job in the high school, she nixed the idea, saying she wanted a job off-site, including the possibility of telecommuting from home as a grant writer.

In a response dated September 8, 2006 interim superintendent Ed Rhine wrote to Page, “I do not doubt that you continue to have professional skills which may be of value to the district… [but] we have no need to create any other full-time position, such as a ‘grant writer,’which might enable you to work at home full-time.”

As both parties drew lines in the sand, the district maintained its stand that Page should go because she hasn’t shown up for work in three years, while the 51-year old former librarian says she’s disabled because of working conditions (mold) at the school and the district owes her a job.
During the board meeting last Tuesday, several folks addressed the board with impassioned pleas for mercy.

“A few weeks ago the district won the right to legally fire Ms, Page due to incompetence, because she did not come to work in an environment that made her sick,” said Padma Dyvine, who signed her open letter to the board of education “taxpayer, parent, friend, concerned citizen, nurse.”
“The final straw, firing Angela Page, can absolve the district from having to pay her health insurance at a time when she needs it to counter her illness… I am appalled at the callousness, short-sightedness and deceit of our elected officials. I cannot believe that I am living in a place where an employee is punished for getting sick in a location that is unsafe.

“If this board fires Ms. Page, it will reflect a decision by people with small hearts, no moral scruples, blindness about the social ramifications to the children of our community, and who are driven by fear,” added Dyvine.

Charlie Barbuti, a local businessman, read a letter into the record from Malcolm Hardy, one of Page’s three children, a 2003 graduate of Liberty High who is hard at work in St. Louis aiding communities struck by disaster.

“Do we, as a community, not hold the ability along with the hope, to try to accommodate a woman who has served most of her life in our structure?” wrote Hardy. “Do we simply abandon the task because it’s convenient? Will we next dispose of textbooks and desks, because they are a burden on our resources?

“To believe that my mother is incompetent is a mistake. She simply cannot function in the reality you present her, but that is not her doing.”
Speaking on behalf of the Liberty Faculty Association, 15-year president Timothy Hamblin called the working conditions in the middle school “deplorable” at the time Page was exposed to the mildewed books.

“The corrected actions you have recently taken to fix the water infiltration problems cannot erase the negligence that took place prior,” he said.
“As members of the educational board you should have demanded that the administration make the necessary accommodations so Angie could continue to serve the school community. As Demosthenes once stated, ‘You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man’s actions are, such must be his spirit.’”

Then in short order, the board took a roll call vote, an action demanded by John Webber, a close friend of Page, who left the local district in 2006 after six years as network administrator.
“All we get around here are hit and run administrators,” he said. “They don’t understand her 23 years of service.”

David L. Burke, president of the board of education, commented on the vote to fire Page.
“I don’t have a reaction to it,” he said.

Kavleski was the lone board member to vote against terminating the middle school librarian.
“My conscience made me feel I had to vote no,” he said.

In summarizing his decision as hearing officer for the case, Campagna said, “The task… to impose the ultimate sanction of termination is not an easy one, particularly where, as here, the respondent [Angela Page] rendered excellent services to the district in her role as middle school librarian preceding her absences resulting from MCS.”

“This is not a case where the employer is seeking the termination of an employee for incompetence due to a proven inability to perform the requirements of the job,” added Campagna, “”Rather, this case boils down to the reasonable expectation of this employer that its employees be present in order that they can perform their duties in an efficient and effective manner.”

A day after the bard voted to fire her, Page, a tenured employee, filed a lawsuit in U.S, District Court alleging disability discrimination and violation of the district’s contract with the teacher’s union.
She is seeking $2 million in damages, plus legal fees.

Sitting home alone breathing oxygen from a series of steel tanks, in house that has been turned into a virtual fortress against toxins in the outside world, Page reacted to the vote to fire her after 23 years of serve to the local school community.
“I feel like I’ve been thrown in the garbage, I can’t imagine there’s no accountability,” she said.
“I spent 13 years emptying buckets, and nobody cares,” added Page. “They have taken my career and my health.”

Fired Liberty librarian files federal lawsuit
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/NEWS/712140385

December 14, 2007
Liberty - Longtime Liberty middle school librarian Angela Page has filed a federal suit against the Liberty Central School District, alleging disability discrimination. She is seeking $2 million in damages, plus legal fees.

The lawsuit comes two days after the district's board of education voted to fire Page for not coming to work at the middle school since June 2004. Page developed multiple chemical sensitivity from the toxic gases released by mold in the middle school library, where she worked for more than a decade.

Since 2004, Page has suggested alternative positions and responsibilities that she could perform for the district. A state arbitrator ruled last month that the school district is "under to legal obligation to create a position or 'assignment'" for Page.

—Michal Lumsden

www.riverreporter.com

Page files federal lawsuit against Liberty school system

Action comes after firing

By FRITZ MAYER

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LIBERTY, NY — If Angela Page lived in another state, she would be able to sue in state court to settle her grievances. But in New York State, an employee is not permitted to sue an employer for allowing hazardous conditions to exist in the workplace, even if those conditions render the employee disabled. That's just a small part of the large education Page has received as a person who is now struggling with the illness called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS).

On December 11, the board of the Liberty Central School District voted to terminate Page's employment as a librarian with the system, after a state arbitrator ruled in late November that the system could fire her because she had not reported to work since June 2004.

However, she didn't report to work because exposure to the mold in the building had caused her to develop MCS, and returning to the building would have made the situation worse. Any exposure to a variety of substances such as perfumes, fragrance in soaps or clothes that have been dried with static-reducing sheets, cause Page serious harm.

The battle with the school district has been ongoing for more than three years. While Page can't sue in state court, she has been pursuing a claim with New York State Worker's Compensation Board and has been largely successful on that front.  The board has repeatedly agreed with her three doctors that she is sick, and the building made her sick. But even if she wins the final appeal in that part of the process, which seems likely, the most she will be compensated is $1,600 a month.

With a health insurance bill that runs $1,200 per month, the worker's compensation payments would not come anywhere near covering her living expenses. Moreover, Page has been cut-off from workman's compensation payments since June of 2006 because of appeals by the school system, and she is feeling a great financial strain.

With that as backdrop, Page's lawyer Michael Sussman filed a lawsuit in federal court on November 12 accusing the school system of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not accommodating Page's condition, and by refusing to take her up on numerous offers to continue to work in another capacity such as a virtual librarian or grant writer, which would have allowed her to do most of her work from home. The school system also refused to attempt to keep any area of the school free of the fragrances and scents that cause Page harm.

The lawsuit further alleges that the school system violated the terms of Page's union contract, which stipulates that a member can't be fired while on worker's compensation. The lawsuit reads, "In terminating plaintiff despite this clear contractual obligation, defendant not only violated its contract with plaintiff's union, of which plaintiff was an intended beneficiary; it also discriminated against her on the basis of her disability."

The suit asks for $2 million in damages. A call to the district superintendent for comment was not returned.

Page is currently undergoing an aggressive regime that involves, among other things breathing pure oxygen for two hours a day. She knows other people who have suffered from the illness, some of whom have recovered, and she is hopeful that she too can recover. But that's not the case for many victims, who can slide into poverty and lose everything, including their homes.

"I've heard that's when it's really hard," said Page. "When you don't have a home, they can't deliver the oxygen."

Stories and comments from the local paper, The Times Herald-Record

Liberty fires middle school librarian
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071213/NEWS/712130314

By BY MICHAL LUMSDEN
Times Herald-Record

December 13, 2007
LIBERTY — By a vote of 6-1, with 2 abstentions, the Liberty school board Tuesday accepted a state mediator's recommendation and fired longtime librarian Angela Page. Now the 51-year-old is considering bringing a federal suit against the district for discriminating against her because of a disability.

"I'm just amazed that it's all right that someone can make you ill and then fire you for the illness they caused," Page said yesterday. She has been a district employee for 23 years.

Because of the multiple chemical sensitivity she developed from mold while working in the middle school library since 1991, Page has not been able to work in the school since June 2004. Dennis Campagna, a mediator with the state Education Department, decided last month that the school district does not have to continue employing Page, since she cannot perform her "duties in an efficient and effective manner."

Tim Hamblin, president of the Liberty Faculty Association, the teacher's union, said that once the district started the state-level process to eliminate Page's tenure last year, there was little his local could do. Hamblin said he is working to make sure the buildings are safe in the future.

"I think they've taken steps to rectify the water infiltration we had in that building," Hamblin said of the middle school. "But there still are problems."

Page breathes through a filtered respirator if she is near anyone wearing any sort of fragrance — including scents from dryer sheets. Since spring 2004, when she fainted in the library, Page has suggested alternative positions and responsibilities that she could carry out in a different space within the school or from her home, in order to maintain employment with the school district.

Campagna's report said creating a new full-time position for Page or allowing her to telecommute "would place an undue hardship on the district."

Though Page won a workers' compensation claim, the decision was appealed in June 2006, at which point her regular pay and benefits were suspended. Page then lived on accumulated sick days through March 2007. She said she has seen none of her $81,701 salary since then.

Schools Superintendent Michael Vanyo did not return a call for comment yesterday.

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6:44 AM  1 of 38 
 
From: chrply
Total posts: 871
 
 I hope mold removel is in that $35 million that the taxpayers just approved for renovations. how come the school knew about this mold problem and we are just hearing about it now, where were the state and board of health inspectors? I know a janitor that worked a LCS that just died from lung cancer and i don't think his wife knew about any mold. 
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8:02 AM  2 of 38 
 
From: bill
Total posts: 208
 
 Not to sound cynical, but could this be just another neurotic person looking for a long vacation at the taxpayers expense? Mold has been around for a billion years, but only lately has it been blamed for everything from fibromyalgia to ADHD. Pure BS, IMHO! 
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8:04 AM  3 of 38 
 
From: Cornfelder99
Total posts: 105
 
 Oh good lord....Mold does NOT give you lung cancer.

The only scientifically proven medical problem mold causes is allergic reactions in some people.

 
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8:08 AM  4 of 38 
 
From: jjsgnd99
Total posts: 24
 
 Chrply, we have heard about the mold problem. We even had a mailing in the school district in regards to it, as well as when they had to spend out of the reserve for cleanup and other emergency renovations to the middle school two summers ago. 
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8:09 AM  5 of 38 
 
From: 57wrangler
Total posts: 46
 
 What about the children 
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8:24 AM  6 of 38 
 
From: askmewhy
Total posts: 24
 
 Older schools didn't have so much mold, because they were built on hilltops with plaster walls. Newer buildings tend to be constructed atop low lying wetland parcels, and have sheetrock walls. New bldgs are also airtight due to energy conservation, making them breeding grounds for indoor mold. MOLD is dangerous, it contains deadly MYCOTOXINS. For more info, please see http://www.schoolmoldhelp.org . 
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8:34 AM  7 of 38 
 
From: Cornfelder99
Total posts: 105
 
 How about providing a link to a non-biased website that cites actual scientific studies.

Mold is in the same category as cell phone radiation, high tension power lines, and silicone breast implants.

All things that owe their dangerous reputations to media hype rather than scientific fact.
 
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9:01 AM  8 of 38 
 
From: jjsgnd99
Total posts: 24
 
 Information regarding the investigation of the school districts facilities by a branch of the CDC can be found here, a copy of which was sent to all residents in the district at the time that it was released...
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/reports/pdfs/2005-0234-2984.pdf 
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9:07 AM  9 of 38 
 
From: Cornfelder99
Total posts: 105
 
 I'm sorry...where in that report does it state the mold is deadly and/or causes cancer?

 
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9:11 AM  10 of 38 
 
From: jjsgnd99
Total posts: 24
 
 some of us are responding to others saying that they have never heard of mold in the school before, not just to your requests 
9:17 AM  11 of 38 
 
From: Cornfelder99
Total posts: 105
 
 How silly of you. 
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 Message 6290.12 was deleted 

9:52 AM  13 of 38 
 
From: oliver
Total posts: 181
 
 I am so sorry to all of you for being so naive. My friends daughter became very ill from living in a rental house that was contaminated with black mold. When they moved to this house the landlord had tried to cover it up by painting it, at that time the ground was frozen and when the basement started getting wet from thawing in the spring all the paint started to peel and reveal the mold. Her 8 year old daughter suffered severe headaches and migraines on a daily basis until they moved out. This poor child was always in pain. The light made her cringe. She now has mold colonized in her nasal cavity and a permanent post nasal drip, and the have been out of that house almost a year. Mold causes ALOT of problems, and can react differently to different people. Maybe you should read up on the different kinds of contamination and different sicknesses it causes before you call it a hoax.

Here are some sites
http://www.moldacrossamerica.org/glossaryA.htm
http://www.mold-survivor.com/submenu1.html
http://healthandenergy.com/mold.htm
http://www.rvclaw.com/resources/article_mealeys_0801.html
http://www.inspect-ny.com/sickhouse/mold.htm

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071212/NEWS/712120358

December 12, 2007

Liberty - The Liberty School District voted last night to fire former middle school librarian Angela Page, who has been out of work since 2004, since going on sick leave because of moldy conditions in the library.

The district has long argued that Page's physical inability to teach at the library for nearly three years is a financial burden and not in the best interests of the students. If returned to her job, she would earn a salary of $81,701 and nearly $30,000 in benefits.

Page has said the district was responsible for her medical condition, because of mold at the library. The conditions were documented in a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

11:17 AM  1 of 20 
 
From: WISENHEIMER
Total posts: 117
 
 Ahhhh...I'm no lawyer...but I think LCSD just walked themselves into a LAWSUIT.MOLD in our schools, YUP. Liberty is not alone, BCE in Fallsburg has the same problem.To all our local school districts;If there are health concerns related to mold, asbestos, etc. in our schools; don't stick your heads in the sand...address the issue. You owe it to the children, staff and taxpayers. Probably less costly to address it, then to drag it through the courts.Oh well...another day in SULLIVAN COUNTY. 
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12:05 PM  2 of 20 
 
From: Art
Total posts: 922
 
 81k for a middle school librarian ... that's about $50 per book for a room that size. Nice compensation... especially for the past 3 years .. Dewey Decimal considered a doctorial science these days ? 
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12:09 PM  3 of 20 
 
From: WISENHEIMER
Total posts: 117
 
 Hey Art...I thought that salary was a bit steep. Boy, wish I could land a job in Sullivan County that paid $80,K w $30,K in benefits.

Two words for ya...

OYE VEY!
 
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12:12 PM  4 of 20 
 
From: Art
Total posts: 922
 
 A bit steep ? Thats 2 teachers ... 3 custodians,..... 1.5 youth counselors... 100 computers ... on and on ... 
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12:21 PM  5 of 20 
 
From: SallyLib
Total posts: 1
 
 Hey Art,I apprears that you are woefully unaware that Librarianship is much more than Dewey Decimal (some libraries don't even use Dewey) and that you have to have a Masters degree in Library and Information SCIENCE to become a librarian (yes, it is a science degree). To be a school media specialist-(aka a school librarian) you have to have a MLIS degree AND a teaching cert, because you are a teacher AND a librarian - so she was dually degreed. Your comment just highlights the misconception that librarians don't have brains or that being a librarian is somehow a lesser career when it is in fact just the opposite. 
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12:27 PM  6 of 20 
 
From: millero5
Total posts: 119
 
 Degree or no degree, it's still a very highly paid part time job.....can you say..TAXES!!! 
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12:29 PM  7 of 20 
 
From: NikkiZ
Total posts: 67
 
 Wow - no wonder why Liberty taxes are so high! $81k? Angela is a very nice woman and I feel sorry for her that she is getting screwed by LCSD - she really is sick - but $81k??? For a librarian? The Director or the SCCC Library doesn't even make that much! I don't think ANY of the other schools in SC pay that much. 
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12:31 PM  8 of 20 
 
From: OhTheHorror
Total posts: 6
 
 Hooray for the taxpayers. Finally, something done right by them. The disability in question here is more of a mental nature than a physical one (I don't mean that as a disparaging comment. I believe that she thinks she has a physical illness but personally i think it's psychosomatic.) 
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12:34 PM  9 of 20 
 
From: Dino
Total posts: 144
 
 wisenheimer you might be able to land a job paying that type of salary if you carry the same typ of credentials as a teacher/ librarian. They have masters degrees and probably more. The school should be ashamed and take responsible for the unsafe conditions of their schools 
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12:37 PM  10 of 20 
 
From: Dino
Total posts: 144
 
 Welcome to the real world Sullivan county. 81k is the type of salary you need to pay for a highly qualified person to help and teach your children. Should the salaries stay low so we attract the left overs or do we want the best for our kids? 

12:38 PM  11 of 20 
 
From: Dino
Total posts: 144
 
 The reason the taxes are so high in Sullivan is because there is nothing here to help supplement the tax base.That is the real problem. 
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12:39 PM  12 of 20 
 
From: Art
Total posts: 922
 
 Sally - Yes.. I am woefully unaware .. I just asked my SUNY sophmore daughter to change her major ... if they are worth every penny .. then more power to them ...

 
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12:46 PM  13 of 20 
 
From: idonnie
Total posts: 12
 
 The Record should explain whether or not she was fired for reasons related to her not being able to work under moldy conditions. If it was another personnel issue, then the article should state so. We are left to speculate. Yes, I smell lawsuit afoot. Has any action even been undertaken to clean up the library? 
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12:49 PM  14 of 20 
 
From: Dino
Total posts: 144
 
 Here is where your taxes are being wasted. I have seen schools get themselves into lawsuits so many times and then lose. Who is advising them. This is the waste you will be paying additional taxes for. 
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12:56 PM  15 of 20 
 
From: followingsybil
Total posts: 291
 
 Why hasn't she been on disability? Has Workers Compensation been paying her? 
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1:32 PM  16 of 20 
 
From: Art
Total posts: 922
 
 9 months ago :

Former librarian wins compensation claim
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."

 
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1:46 PM  17 of 20 
 
From: WISENHEIMER
Total posts: 117
 
 DINO,

Masters or other degree...$81,K and $30,K in Benefits...in SULLIVAN COUNTY?
Amazing that someone found a job like that in Sullivan County. Most folks that have a Masters Degree can't find a job in the County that will pay them the kind of $ they warrant.

I went to the school of hard knocks, and graduated with a degree in common sense.

Maybe when the CASINO comes to Town...I'll land that good paying job...NOT! lol

Bottom Line is:

Sullivan County School Districts need to clean-up the school buildings and grounds. Environmental concerns abound...in MANY.

Hope the sick librarian gets well.

Oh well...another day in Sullivan County.
 
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3:08 PM  18 of 20 
 
From: Dino
Total posts: 144
 
 Good teachers are what you want and they will need to be paid well or they will go to a more compeditive area. I guess the children don't matter . The only thing that seems to matter to some people is how much others are making and how to CHEAP out on our childrens education because they don't make as much as someone else. The only way to compete for decent money is to come to the table with something, not just a degree of common sense from the school of hard knocks. 
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3:19 PM  19 of 20 
 
From: CasiNo
Total posts: 290
 
 Okay--this is a complicated issue. But it appears that the State agrees that this librarian is ill because of a failure on the part of the school to provide a safe working environment. Yet she offered to come back to work in a capacity that would allow her to work despite the disability. School systems are required by law to create and maintain "the least restrictive environment" for students with disabilities, yet they fire a teacher who is seeking the same thing???? Something tells me the lawsuits are not over yet here--good luck Angela Page. As for the money she is entitled to--it seems out of proportion for Sullivan County, I agree. But it is a negotiated contract, with the full participation of the Board of Ed. 
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3:24 PM  20 of 20 
 
From: DirectorSMH
Total posts: 2
 
 The librarian's (Angela Page's) story, which should be a wakeup call to a town that has its children in damp, moldy, toxic buildings, is on www.schoolmoldhelp.org in the Information, Real Testimonies section. The focus in the town SHOULD be:

1. the sick school buildings that are destroying the health of school staff (many are now ill) and the children (Page's own child suffered from the district schools)

2. fair treatment of Ms. Page who wanted to work and receive accommodations so she could provide her librarian services to the school district

3. realize that Ms. Page won her Worker's Comp case and hasn't been paid, she has lived on savings for two years

4. realize that your teachers and school staff are valued citizens who should not be thrown out like the trash when a very leaky, moldy building destroys their health.

What kind of community would sanction this? What kind of school board would fire a teacher who wants to work, who only needs accommodations for disability?

Are you not concerned about sick buildings that can destroy the public health of the entire community as the children and teachers cycle through?

This community has ignored the NIOSH reports that showed all three schools to be unhealthy and toxic. The parents have stuck their heads in the sand. The union has not supported Ms. Page as it could have, nor have the teachers.

This is a story of a town that is turning its back on its children and school staff. I am appalled.

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