She's baaaaack...Betty Cox returns with law degree to fight toxic mold in schools

Emily Peters / The Town Talk, Alexandria, Louisiana
Posted on July 30, 2003

A school secretary is suing the Rapides Parish School Board with the help of former school superintendent Betty Cox.

Cox, now a Baton Rouge lawyer, is representing Peggy Bergeron in her lawsuit that claims toxic mold in her office at the Rapides Motivational Center made her ill.

Cox served as Rapides Parish school superintendent from 1994 to 1998 before she left the district with a $1.7 million settlement after legal strife with School Board members.

Cox went on to study law at the Louisiana State University School of Law and now works for the Walton J. Barnes, II, professional law firm in Baton Rouge.

In her mold lawsuit, Bergeron claims a moldy ceiling tile over her desk has caused a variety of illnesses, including "severely aggravated gastritis, excruciating epigastric and abdominal pain, persistent cough, severe headaches, skin rash, lung infection, breathing difficulties, itching and fatigue," according to the lawsuit.

Bergeron, who has worked for the school system since 1976, said district maintenance staff replaced moldy ceiling tiles a few times in response to her complaints, but the mold never was eliminated.

Bergeron sought Cox as her lawyer though the two had never interacted much before.

"I just knew her all those years as my superintendent and I was impressed," Bergeron said. "I heard she finished law school, and I thought, who better? She knows the ins and outs of this school system. She is very fair."

Cox could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Bergeron also filed for an injunction to keep the School Board from tampering with her office before it can be tested for evidence of toxic mold. The judge scheduled a court date for the injunction on Aug. 18 at 9:30 a.m.

Bergeron said she hired RTC, an indoor air quality testing company from Baton Rouge, to evaluate the mold from her ceiling. She showed paperwork that showed RTC identified the fungus as stachybotrys, a mold commonly found to cause illness.

She said she never had allergy or sinus problems before she started working at the Truancy Center last year.

Cox's relationship with the School Board deteriorated shortly after she was hired in 1994. She ordered an investigation into board members' use of a school system telephone line for personal and long distance telephone calls. The board suspended her but she was reinstated by federal court order eight days later. She then sued most of the board members.

The legal wrangling continued until Jan. 3, 1998, when the board agreed to pay Cox $1.7 million in exchange for her resignation.

The Truancy Center was terminated in April's budget cuts, including Bergeron's secretarial position. However, Bergeron has received no personal notification of the changes, and she signed a contract earlier this summer to work somewhere in the school system in the fall.

Two years ago, school district officials quarantined parts of Mary Goff Elementary to clear the school of toxic mold. A less-dangerous mold also was found at North Bayou Rapides Elementary School last summer.

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