Schools'
Mold, Mildew Targeted
An
attack on mold and mildew
in schools is being launched in the Florida Legislature, where two bills
address the persistent health problem.
By
Mary Ellen Flannery
- Feb. 29, 2004
When a child suffers, lawmakers
frequently seek to prevent more pain through legislation that bears its
martyr's name: Amber, Megan, Jimmy Ryce -- and now, perhaps Kyla.
During the late 1990s, as an elementary
school student in northern Palm Beach County, Kyla St. Mary had multiple
bouts of pneumonia and other opportunistic infections. Her parents, who
settled a more than $1 million lawsuit with the Palm Beach County School
District and its insurers last year, argued that mold in their
daughter's classroom had made her sick.
''Kyla was unable to go to that school
for more than an hour -- she'd come home with double ear infections,''
said Denise Karpinia, president of the Palm Beach County-based
HealthyLiving Foundation. ``This is a child who actually died on the
table -- she flat-lined during a lung biopsy.''
CLEAN-AIR BILLS
Kyla recovered her health, but many
parents in South Florida say their children's schools remain sick. Two
bills this year -- one filed by two Broward County Democrats and the
other, Kyla's Law, expected from the House Education Committee -- would
require Florida school districts to adopt federal clean-air standards
and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's program to improve campus
conditions.
Mold and mildew, common intruders in
moist South Florida, have been plaguing schools for decades -- since the
advent of air-conditioned schools eliminated open windows. The problem
gained attention last year when a Broward grand jury called for reform
and parents and teachers filed mold-related lawsuits.
STANDARDS `OVERDUE'
Broward School Board members included
air-quality standards on this year's legislative to-do list. They have
also thrown their weight behind the bill sponsored by Democrats Sen.
Skip Campbell of Coral Springs and Rep. Nan Rich of Weston.
''Basically, what we're trying to do is
put some standards into the law,'' lobbyist Georgia Slack said. ``. . .
We think they're long overdue.''
An air-quality law would fulfill one of
31 recommendations of the grand jury, whose scathing assessment said the
School Board's effort to remove potentially hazardous mold and mildew
was too slow and too sloppy.
Since then, the Broward district has
committed nearly $100 million over five years to mold removal -- an
amount that should remedy existing problems, Deputy Superintendent Jim
Notter said. Also, the district has adopted the EPA's prevention
program, called Tools for Schools, in more than 30 of its 200-plus
schools.
Still, some parents say the district
isn't moving fast enough.
Indian Trace Elementary School was
cleaned, but it still has mold, said parent Mary MacFie, one of 22
plaintiffs in the September lawsuits. Similarly, at Sunland Park
Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale, a $1 million mold-
removal project jumped to $2.4 million,
and contractors told board members last month that they still smell mold
there.
''We're trying to hold them
accountable,'' said Charlotte Greenbarg, president of The Broward
Coalition, which supports an effort by Miami Rep. Ralph Arza, a
Republican, to introduce Kyla's Law as a committee bill.
PENALTIES ENVISIONED
A draft of Arza's bill, which Karpinia
and MacFie helped write, calls for independent contractors, not district
employees, to administer air-quality tests, and would levy $1,000 fines
for each deficiency. If a school fails twice, its certificate of
occupancy would be revoked.
Moreover, if anybody on campus reports
air-related health problems for three consecutive days, students and
staff members could transfer out.
''I asked some of the advocates in the
area, and they told me [Rich's] legislation wouldn't go far enough,''
Arza said.
But those kinds of penalties wouldn't
create systemic change, Notter said. ''It's not punitive actions that
cause reform, it's regulatory actions,'' he said. He likes the aspect of
Campbell and Rich's bill that requires all new school designs to meet
ventilation standards.
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