Students attending Barack Obama Elementary School located in Richmond, Virginia, are not able to go to class after another round of mold was found inside the already troubled building, which had previously been hit by reports it was infested with rodents just several days earlier. Teachers were preparing classrooms when they discovered “additional areas of mold growth,” which shot down plans to open the school following an initial delay.
While a lot of the media coverage has focused on the mold, there has been one majorly disgusting detail left out of most reports. Richmond Public Schools acknowledged that last week, rodents were spotted in several classrooms. The school district stated that an exterminator would address the issue. However, angry parents are now demanding answers about how both the mold and the rodents managed to go undetected until the day before the start of a new school year.
“[We’re] really just demanding some accountability and transparency and a real, true plan to get our children back into school in a safe way,” one parent told local network 8News. Jason Kamras, the superintendent for Richmond Public Schools, provided details about two possible paths forward during a town hall meeting. Keep the kids at home while the school undergoes remediation or temporarily relocate the children to Clark Springs Elementary School.
According to a report from Trending Politics News, Kamras first rejected the idea of an immediate move, making the case that relocating students could cause more disruption if tests show that the building is safe. “I think it would be unfair to the team at Obama to ask them to move everything, set up their classes, start at Clark Springs and then two weeks later come back to Obama,” the superintendent said.
Instead, the district is now going to clean and test every room at Barack Obama Elementary, though Kamras issued a warning that the process might not result in an “all-clear” by the end of the week. “There is a chance that we do all the remediation over the next couple of days and that we test every single room, and there may still be some rooms with slightly elevated levels,” Kamras went on to say. “That is a very real possibility, just given the nature of the building.”
The mold issue is the result of an HVAC outage that led to growth in the building’s basement and on furniture. Other reports have said that mold was found on computers and music equipment, which has raised more concerns about how widespread the contamination might be. Parents pressed Kamras about transportation, childcare, and whether Clark Springs itself has been tested and found safe for the new school year.
“What’s the timeline and what’s the plan for parents that are really struggling here?” one parent asked the superintendent. He responded by saying the district is going to work with the YMCA and Richmond Parks and Recreation to explore possible solutions for childcare assistance for families while Barack Obama Elementary remains closed.
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Kamras ultimately pledged to send both parents and staff members two updates every day about the status of the cleanup. He then said that the district plans to conduct monthly testing throughout the school year after the children have been allowed inside. As of this writing, parents have no firm first-day date for when Obama Elementary will be opened.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video