Stench Keeps Students From Rockland Co. School
CLARKSTOWN, N.Y. (CBS 2) -- For three weeks the persistent sickening odor has driven away students, teachers, staff and parents from Laurel Plains Elementary School in Rockland County.
Classrooms remained empty after the smell came back again Tuesday -- sickening staff.
So students from the school continued to cram into an auditorium, planetarium, and gym to attend school at South Clarkstown High School.
Parents told CBS 2's Lou Young it has been going on too long.
"I had very bad headache, you get like a very metallic taste in your mouth," parent Michelle Hughes said.
Hughes also told CBS 2's Dave Carlin something also made her 10-year-old daughter sick every single school day since September 16th.
"She came home every day, 'I have a headache, I have a headache, I have a headache," Hughes said.
"Oh I'm so upset. My children are upset, my family's upset. Everybody's been disrupted," Parent Diahann Ahle said.
Wednesday night, district Leaders admitted the cloud of illness and uncertainty hanging over the school was too great to allow kids to return until further notice.
And relief may be in site. A neighboring East Ramapo school district shut down last year due to budget cuts. CBS 2 has learned that the plan was for Clarkstown to lease it and re-establish Laurel Plains.
Many parents like the idea, but also demanded the school be fully tested and cleaned before the kids go in.
Initially, the smell problem seemed to be concentrated in and around room 21 -- a room facing the interior courtyard. That's where the testing began starting with the soil. Officials even tried covering up a drain grate to try and isolate the smell, but were unsuccessful.
The first test results came up empty, but in the past few days, crews discovered rodents living in the air conditioning system. In addition, high levels of organic gases like butane, methane and propane were picked up from parking lot soil samples.
"They were calling it seasonal allergies," Ahle said, "they were very dismissive of the teachers and that was a shame."
