School staff and students at Franklin School in Oregon are sick after asbestos was removed during spring break.
Asbestos was removed from the flooring during students’ absence, but reports of “headaches, nausea, dizziness, sore throats, and runny noses” were reported upon their return on March 28, at which time the new tiles had not yet been installed, according to The Democrat Herald.
Third-grade teacher Stacey Reese reportedly sent an email to the parents of the students in her class informing them of an odor in the building, indicating she had “virtually no voice left,” and that more than half her students had reportedly fallen ill, according to The Democrat Herald.
Concerned parents were unimpressed with Franklin Principal Craig Harlow’s handling of the situation, especially after discovering that children had eaten lunch on the floor of the contaminated hallway, the outlet reported.
An asbestos abatement done over spring break had some unintended consequences at Franklin School K-8. Read how the PTA took matters into their own hands to investigate: https://t.co/myMeKDWKso
— Joanna (@joanna_mann_) April 25, 2022
An April 3 email from Harlow pushed back on allegations that the fumes had caused illness to students, suggesting allergies were the cause of their complaints, The Democrat Herald reported.
Jonathan Stoll, a parent of two daughters attending Franklin School reported Harlow’s communication about this matter as being “dismissive,” according to The Democrat Herald.
Rigel Woodside has three students in the school and all his children experienced headaches from the fumes, inclusive of migraine headaches suffered by his eighth-grader, which led to a full week off school, the outlet reported. (RELATED: Mike Krzyzewski Leaves The Duke/Wake Forest Game With An Illness)
The district deemed the odor to be a result of the off-gassing, according to The Democrat Herald. Air quality remained a concern in spite of efforts made by the custodial team to cleanse the floors and ventilate the school, the outlet reported.
“The odor was atypical in our experience,” said Superintendent Ryan Noss, according to The Democrat Herald. “Typically when we’ve removed floor tiles in the past, there hasn’t been a residual smell like that,” he said, according to the outlet.
Noss reportedly suggested the problem that seemed unique to this school could have been due to the fact that the school was an older building with cement slabs that may have absorbed the chemical product used in a manner that trapped in some of the odors, according to The Democrat Herald.