Five years ago, Jade Black was trapped in a school rife with mold in Wisconsin. The experience forced her to use inhalers and medicine was costing her $350.00 a month. When she was transferred to a mold-free school, the symptoms which greatly detracted from her health and educational experience dissapeared almost immediately.
For the next five years, Jade’s mother Jeanne Black and her family worked tirelessly to introduce legislation into the Wisconsin Assembly. With the support of other parents, teachers, and the advocacy of The Center for School Mold Help, the Black Family finally succeeded in passing SB 41 which was signed into law in December. This is the first bill passed to regulate indoor air quality in schools in Wisconsin.
During the bill’s testimony, Jeanne spoke about her and her daughter’s experience with school mold and the system that prevents schools from taking action to correct the problem. “Without regulations and laws in Wisconsin on this issue it gives school boards and administrations a chance to deny, cover up, threatening jobs and simply not address the issue, while our children are inhaling toxic air on a daily basis,” Jeanne said before the Assembly.
Another parent spoke on how her son demonstrated systemic yeast infection and severe chronic poisoning at a Wisconsin school. This was cateogirzed as Late stage II mycotoxicosis, with Late stage III being death. The treatment for his permanent condition is not covered by the family’s health insurance.
The bill calls for an Indoor Environmental Quality in Schools Task Force formed by the state superintendent of public instruction and consisting of the secretary of commerce, the secretary of health services, and eleven members representing various school or health-related associations. The task force is charged with making recommendations to the Department of Public Instruction who must establish a model management plan and practices for maintaining indoor environmental quality in public and private schools. Each school’s school board or governing body must implement a plan for maintaining indoor environment quality in its school or schools.
The plan may sound a little heavy in bureaucracy, but I hope it will result in schools taking a more pro-active approach to lower levels of mold. Prevention, after all, is the simplest way to deal with mold and does not require a lot of difficult decisions or financial burdens for schools.
Email This Post
Print This Post
You must log in to post a comment.