Lawyer warns board on school pesticide

The lawyer representing parents and students at Charles H. Hulse Public School intends to send a letter to the school board putting it on notice that the school had better be safe before the board allows any children to return.

Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon said he met with a halfdozen parents on Tuesday and was receiving calls from many more on Wednesday after Tuesday evening’s public meeting about the pesticide situation at the school.

The school was closed on April 10 after a pesticide containing Propoxur was used to kill cockroaches. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board says the pesticide wasn’t approved for use in the school.

“The parents are expressing their concerns that there is no way they want their kids going back into Charles Hulse unless there’s a guarantee that it is safe,” Greenspon said. “What we’ll be doing in the next three days is getting a letter off to the board expressing those concerns and basically putting them on notice that, ‘Hey, don’t think about moving the kids back in there unless you are absolutely sure it is safe to do so.’ ”

Greenspon said the school board had once before declared the school safe only to have teachers go back in and get sick again.

The school board now says it hopes to reopen the school sometime between May 11 and May 19 following extensive renovations. During the closure its 450 students are being bused to Parkwood Hills Public School.

Greenspon said the plan now is to monitor the children’s health over the longer term.

Greenspon said the parents he has spoken to reported their children had suffered nausea, eye irritation and breathing difficulties.

He said any lawsuits could be years away. Typically a litigant has two years to file a lawsuit, but since the children involved are all minors, they have until two years past their 18th birthdays to file a lawsuit.

Greenspon said the children of the parents he met with are five to 11 years old.

There is no way they want their kids going back into Charles Hulse unless there’s a guarantee that it is safe.