Broken trust: Lutsel K'e parents upset that government withheld school mould discovery

Some people in Lutsel K'e say the N.W.T. government has eroded the community's trust by waiting three weeks to disclose that mould had been discovered in Lutsel K'e Dene School.

Close to 40 elementary school students had to leave the schoolon Thursday. Sept. 8, after the assistant superintendent for the N.W.T.'s South Slave region said hewas informed that mould had been discovered in the building during construction.

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"On September 8,I received a phone call from [the assistant deputy minister of education and culture] indicating that mould had been discovered and that the school should be closed immediately," said Joe Pearce.

Within the next few hours, parents and community members learned of the mould for the first time as well.

'Mould was discovered.on August 15'

"Mould was discovered.on August 15 in the construction zone of the school," said assistant deputy minister of Public Works, Mike Burns.

Twoweeks laterthe contractor brought in an air quality consultant from Vancouver "to identify if there was any concern, and if there was, how it was to be handled and remediated."

Students had returned to school two days prior, but neitherthe Lutsel K'eDistrict EducationAuthority, nor parentswere notified.

"The specialistdid air-quality tests in the construction area initially," said Burns.

"He also did some air quality sampling outside the construction zone... to find out if anything in the construction zone migrated into the school."

The territorial government received those tests results on Sept. 7.

"The results showed that there were elevated mould levels in the air in a few areas of the school, but those test results were not 100 per cent complete," said Burns.

The consultant still needed to test the air quality outside the building for a meaningful comparison.

However, the next day Burns' department "worked with [department of education] to take precautionary measures to evacuate the school."

'Very, very low risk'

On Tuesday, "we got the final report that confirmed that levels of mould in the air outside the building were significantly higher than the inside so the issue is not being driven by what is inside the building," said Burns.

• Lutsel K'e Dene School to reopen after mould discovery, says government email

He added that the airborne mould spore count number had dropped significantly.

"About 4000 spores per cubic metre is considered low risk, and we're down in the hundreds, so it's very, very low risk."

CBC requested photographs of the mould, butBurns said he was not able to provide them.

'Parents have the right to that information'

Some parents are upset with the territorial government'stimeline,and want to know why it waited until after it had finished testing to evacuate the school.

"If they know that there was mould there, and they knew they had disturbed the mould to a level where they had to take samples, the precautionary stepwould have been to not open the school until those test results were complete," arguedStephanie Poole, a parent and a member of the local district education authority.

Poole said, if she'd known the building was being tested for mould, she would not have let her children go inside.

She believes "parents have the right to that kind of information."

But burns doesn't necessarily agree.

"The mould was inside the construction zone and because it's contained and isolated from the school, it's not something you would notify parents about. It's only after testing that you would advise the school.

"If the area is completely sealed off, and workers are following protocols, there's no reason to be concerned, so you generally don't overreact," he said.

John Macdonald, with Alberta Safety & Environmental Services, a HAZMAT Remediation & Removal Consulting firm based in Calgary, said it sounds like the territorial government followed standard evacuation procedure.

"If we discover mould in a school, we would go in, take a look, and if it's really extensive, we would run some air samples."

Macdonald says his company would not evacuate an entire school "unless[the mould]was everywhere," without the results of the air sample tests.

"The only time we would evacuate the area, would be during remediation, and we would only evacuate the area, say a few classrooms, around the worksite."

'How are we supposed to trust you'

Some parents in Lutsel K'e says it's about more than just following procedures.

"The biggest thing is the GNWT expects us to trust them, but from the beginning they weren't forthcoming about anything," says Angie Deranger.

"It's like how are we supposed to trust you now if we couldn't even trust you in the beginning, and you tried to hide things."

Both Deranger and Poole say the community believes the mould still poses a health risk, and are afraid to move their children back into the school next month.

"The people from this community, their government is the one who sent them out to residential schools, trying to tell people that their children would be okay, but a majority of the children were not okay, and that ripple effect goes down through generations," says Deranger.

"It's like if we couldn't trust you then, how are we supposed to trust you now. And when we do put our trust in you, you don't communicate with us, and you're not forthcoming with serious issues, when our kids are in our your hands."

Burns said the territorial government hopes it can rebuild some of that trust, starting this Friday ata meeting scheduled for 1:30 p.m.in the community hall.