Student and staff lawsuits target mold in schools

Jamie Malernee, Education Writer

Posted: September 20, 2003 Sun-Sentinel.com

After years of watching her son suffer from severe symptoms -- vomiting in class and at home, having to endure 78 allergy injections, 22 prescribed medications, CAT scans and two surgeries to drain his sinuses -- Cara Aliseo finally pulled him out of his mold-plagued elementary school.

He's been healthy ever since, she said.

On Friday, Aliseo spoke out about the mold problems as one of 18 parties to file lawsuits against the Broward County School District.

Filed on behalf of 13 students and seven employees, the mold lawsuits allege Riverside and Indian Trace elementary schools were more than just petri dishes for the "black snow" and sludge that grew inside walls and blew through the air conditioning systems.

The mold lawsuits allege the Coral Springs and Weston schools were not only defectively built and maintained, but that officials ignored the mold problems for years and, when they were finally forced to fix things, mold remediation efforts were shoddy and in some cases made things worse.

"I was told the School Board would not keep children in a place that was not safe," Aliseo recalls when she first began to question the connection between her son's symptoms and Riverside. "But since the day he left, he has not taken a single antibiotic."

Lawyers for Aliseo and other parents say the 18 lawsuits filed in Broward Circuit Court are only the "first wave" of mold litigation to hit the district following a scathing grand jury report released in May.

The report renounced the district's handling of mold issues and all but invited parents and workers to seek damages for their exposure and concurrent health problems, which include nose bleeds, respiratory infections, rashes, chronic cough and lost sense of taste.

Also named in the suit are Superintendent Frank Till and the School Board, as well as architects, engineers, roofers, contractors, mold remediation experts and clean-up workers associated with the schools.

"Each day that goes by, we receive additional phone calls. We suspect this is a Broward County-wide problem ..." said Boca Raton attorney Scott Gelfand.

School district spokesman Joe Donzelli said new administrators have put better procedures in place to address concerns, have revamped Riverside Elementary, and are investing millions of dollars to properly clean other campuses.

In addition to seeking "major monetary damages" for pain and suffering, medical expenses and future medical monitoring, the lawsuits ask for an injunction against the school district, requiring it to meet all 31 improvement recommendations listed in the scathing grand jury report.

School officials say most of those recommendations have already been met voluntarily.

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