Westhill students walk out over mold
Protest to raise awareness of health issue
STAMFORD — Hundreds of Westhill High students — dressed in black and green and carrying signs demanding air quality testing — staged a walkout Monday morning to raise awareness to the mold issues plaguing their school.
Last week, the district revealed nearly 100 teachers have filed workers’ compensation claims due to symptoms related to mold. At least 40 of these claims are from Westhill with about a dozen teachers missing time.
Organizers of the walkout said they wanted to raise awareness to the health issues facing the students. They said while teachers have the option to go on leave, they have no
choice but to sit in the school and experience symptoms like exhaustion and headaches.
“Student health is also being affected,” said Kate Williams, 17, a senior who helped organize the walkout. “Teachers can file workers’ comp and stay out of school, but students can’t do that. We don’t have the luxury of missing school ... we’re forced to be in this building. We’re grateful the Mold Task Force is doing all this surface mold remediation, but we’re still breathing in this air that’s contaminated by mold.”
Tensions have been rising for months since it was revealed mold was found in more than half of Stamford Public Schools. Parents and staff called for the district to examine the schools for mold, particularly Westover Magnet Elementary School and Newfield Elementary School. In response, the city formed a Mold Task Force to tackle the issue. Westover Magnet has since been relocated to an Elmcroft Road office complex and the Newfield portables have been shut down.
So far, it’s cost the district $1.87 million just to lease the new Westover property until the end of the year. District officials are still determining how much the mold problem will cost the city this year.
The walkout on Monday was organized by Williams and classmates Harrison Travaglino and Marcello Staiano. They handed out flyers calling for air quality testing, free medical testing for mold in the bloodstream for students and staff and for the district to address the structural issues causing the problem instead of just clearing visible growths.
They said upwards of 500 students attended the walkout based on the number of flyers they distributed.
Williams said plans for the walkout began last week when it was discussed during a Mold Task Force meeting that it would take one to two years for the district to replace the Westhill HVAC system.
“That’s good for a longterm solution,” she said. “But what about right now when we’re still sitting here becoming sick?”
Students said they have noticed headaches and exhaustion setting in a few hours in the school day for months and even years. It was even worse for students with preexisting conditions like asthma. Everyone’s symptoms seemed worse over the past couple months.
“This is unacceptable,” Williams said. “They’re allowing us to sit here in this building, not doing air quality testing, just letting our quality of lives and education diminish. They weren’t saying anything about the air. This has to stop. We can’t just keep sitting here, breathing in this air, getting sick and having no choice, but to go to school.”
The students said they hoped the walkout would spread the message about their health concerns. However, they said their voices were muted after the district’s administration was tipped off Sunday night to the walkout.
Williams said the administration asked them about their plans and told them any students walking out during the first period would be considered absent. Student organizers said they were also told they could not wear the surgical masks they had purchased for the walkout.
Members of the administration, including Superintendent Earl Kim and Westhill Principal Michael Rinaldi, attended the walkout.
“The administration provides intimidation,” Staiano said. “You come out there and you have to walk by two vice principals, your principal and Kim ... I thought it was very interesting to see someone so powerful within the Board of Education to come and see us because apparently they were informed about it (Sunday) night, and all of a sudden, it needed to be kept to a certain degree ... It’s important to us that all the voices at Westhill are being heard. We no longer felt they were being heard. ”
The administration also blocked the media from attending the event. Kim said the media was not allowed on the property and a Stamford police officer escorted a Stamford Advocate reporter off the grounds. Students said police and school security also asked other media that was set up across the street to leave.
“That made us very upset,” Williams said. “We felt like our voices were being repressed. We staged this walkout not only to send a message to our administration, but the whole city.”
Sharon Beadle, a spokeswoman for Stamford Public Schools, said media was not permitted at the event because students did not have signed media release forms. She said the added police presence was in case things “got out of hand.”
“It was a very well-organized event from our perspective and I’d imagine from the students’ too,” Beadle said. “It went as they wanted.”
In a statement, Beadle said the district “recognizes and respects students’ desire to express concerns regarding the environment of their school.”
Beadle said limited air quality tests conducted at the school during the summer did not raise any concerns and additional tests were not recommended by environmental specialists.
“Not every student may be aware of the work of the Mold Task Force,” Beadle’s statement read. “Over the past few months, with regard to WHS specifically, our first priority was to address any visible and surface mold issues as soon as possible. While there was some evidence of visible mold growth in limited areas, there has not been significant visible active mold growth in the building. A professional remediation company has been engaged and is cleaning diffusers to remove any evidence of mold. Thus far, 24 rooms have been environmentally cleaned and cleaning will continue this week.”