Asbestos fiasco totally unacceptable

The July 18 front-page story, “Protocols breached,” about the mishandling of asbestos removal at Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside must have a lot of people shaking their heads.

Asbestos removal isn’t a new problem and I’m sure companies doing this work charge through the nose to do it.

P.E.I. Public Schools Branch (remember them from the school closure fiasco?) is involved, so maybe that’s a big part of the problem.

PSB director Parker Grimmer is quoted, in an email to Education deputy minister Susan Willis: “While Chris (Keefe) feels the exposures in these cases are low and hopefully the risk to students and staff is also low …”

“Hopefully?” Wow, that must leave parents and families of students and staff with a comfortable feeling. The Chris Keefe referred to in the email is school safety consultant for the PSB.

Somebody sure dropped the ball on this one. The consultant? The board? The contractor?

This needs to be investigated and changes made to ensure this never happens again.

Totally unacceptable. Heads should roll.

Lloyd Kerry, Charlottetown