Canaries Return To The Capital To Sing A Happy Tune

By Kaaren Valenta

Two new initiatives promoting environmental health in Connecticut schools were launched this year as a result of efforts by groups like the Canary Committee, an organization founded by a teacher who became disabled by mold exposure in a school.

Joellen Lawson, the Newtown resident who was forced by illness to leave her teaching position at a Fairfield elementary school that was later torn down because of mold contamination, led members of the Canary Committee to Hartford in September for a press conference. The event was held to celebrate the passage of landmark legislation on indoor air quality in Connecticut schools and the development of a new program, Green Flag, that is a national initiative by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) to help students take leadership on environmental issues within their schools.

The new state law, An Act Concerning Indoor Air Quality in Schools, holds school districts accountable for properly maintaining facilities and discourages the practice of deferring maintenance, a trend that has led to environmental issues blamed with causing preventable illnesses in students and teachers.

“In the long run, the true measure of this bill’s success will come when Connecticut teachers no longer have the highest rate of occupational asthma, and we stop hearing reports of children requiring medical care due to poor air quality in a school,” Ms Lawson said. “This bill is the first important step toward reversing what had become an alarming trend.”

Taylor Epifano, 11, of Trumbull attended the press conference and served as a spokesperson for the nine children –– Canary Kids –– who had testified at a public hearing in Hartford last March.

 “All the children here today are proud of speaking out,” Taylor said. “I know it made me feel good that the lawmakers believed our stories and understood our suffering. This bill has made a difference in my life, but it will also make a difference in the lives of the other children who remain in sick schools.”

Newtown students Ashley Davis and Katherine Donohue were among the students who attended the press conference. They were also among a small group of students who developed a rash after being exposed to a mold condition caused by flooding in the new Reed Intermediate School, a situation that the school district says has since been remedied.

Rep Robert Godfrey of Danbury said it was time for the legislature to finally address this issue.

“The Canary Committee played a pivotal role in the passage of what is, in my opinion, one of the most significant pieces of legislation from last session,” he said. “I was very pleased by the bipartisan support that led to overwhelming approval of this bill in the House [147 to 1] and Senate [35 to 1].”

State Rep Julia Wasserman of Newtown and Sen John McKinney were among the supporters.

“As ranking member of the Environment Committee I have heard a lot of testimony the past several years about the poor air quality in schools throughout the state,” Sen McKinney said. “From faulty ventilation equipment, inadequate maintenance, and other structural failures, the situation became urgent. We need to be sure the air [that] children and teachers are breathing while in school is safe.”

Paul Ruther, coordinator of the Green Flag program, came from Falls Church, Va., to congratulate two schools –– the Villa Maria School of Stamford and Huckleberry Hill Elementary School in Brookfield –– for working on indoor air quality issues, and the Southeast Elementary School in Mansfield for an outstanding recycling program.

CHEJ is a national environmental organization founded in 1981 by Lois Gibbs and other grassroots activists to win federal relocation of residents victimized by toxic waste at the Love Canal. Originally known as the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, the organization provides technical information and training to help citizens deal with environmental issues.

In the Green Flag program, parents, teachers, and students work together to investigate environmental issues in their schools, identify problems, create solutions, and improve the school environment. When a school makes these improvements, it wins the Green Flag Award for Environmental Leadership.

During the press conference, Ashley Davis, 12, and Katherine Donohue, 12, sang the Canary Committee theme song, a song written by Joellen Lawson and sung to the music of the popular song “Every Breath You Take”:

“For our children’s sake, with so much at stake, for every breath we take, for the progress you make, we are thanking you.

“For every mom’s heartache, for every rash outbreak, for every breath we take, for the progress you make, we are thanking you.

“In 2003 you passed this bill for me, made air quality a top priority.

“With the asthma rate for teachers in our state, we simply could not wait for this new mandate, we are thanking you.”

“This was written before the rash outbreak at the Reed school because often a rash is the first sign of a reaction to mold,” Ms Lawson said. “It doesn’t say a lot about human nature that we marginalize these people [who say they are getting sick]. Children who go through this often are teased or bullied. As if it isn’t enough for them to be sick, we now have to worry about them being taunted.”

Ashley and Katherine were among six students who spent the last few months of the past school year being tutored at the Newtown Middle School because they were sickened by the mold at the Reed School.

“It was difficult,” Ashley said. “People acted like we were faking it. But it was more than just a rash or an itch. There were symptoms like dizziness, headache, nausea, sore throat, and stomach ache.”

“A [school] nurse told me it was all in my head,” Katherine said. “It turned out it wasn’t. My face was swollen for three days and every day I got worse symptoms. I already had lots of allergies. [The school officials] thought it would be better after April vacation, but it was worse.”

“They didn’t want to believe us –– they said how could this happen in a brand new school?” she added.

 The six students all tested positive for mold allergies, including Ashley who never had allergies before. “It was in the air vents so it was constantly blowing everywhere,” she said. “They moved us from one part of the building to another. Some places were worse than others.”

At the middle school, some students ridiculed them.

“It was very difficult,” Ashley said, nearly in tears. “I am grateful that so many people did believe us and took our cause to Hartford to get a law passed. Now something has to be done to take care of these kind of problems in schools.”

The students went back to the Reed school for the last two days of the school year to say goodbye to their teachers and friends and to get their yearbooks signed. This year Ashley and Katherine are in seventh grade, attending classes in the middle school.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold its fourth annual Tools for Schools symposium in Washington, D.C., October 26–28. Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools (IAQ TfS) is a nationwide initiative to help school officials assess, resolve, and prevent indoor air quality problems, and reduce exposure to asthma triggers in school facilities. The EPA also has developed a new website www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/ that contains recommendations and tools to help communities and design professionals integrate good indoor air quality practices into the design, construction, renovation, and operation and maintenance of K–12 school facilities.

The Newtown school district has a Climate Control Committee, made up of representatives of the community, which made recommendations that $14.5 million be spent in maintenance projects at Head O’ Meadow School, Hawley School, Newtown Middle School, Sandy Hook School, and Middle Gate School. The report was accepted and its recommendations were endorsed by the Board of Education on August 12.

For more information about indoor air quality in schools, see www.canarycommitteecom; www.pollutionfree.schools.org; or www.chej.org.