What else should I do about this mold I saw in a school?
Recently I was subbing at the elementary school. My mom is a teacher there and we were painting together. While I was there I noticed several areas with mold. I told my mom and she said she would tell the head custodian. He wasn’t there that day. That was months ago. I asked my mom if they did anything about the mold and she was like “what mold were?”. I decided to just call the principal and tell her where I saw the mold. And I reccomended she had the building inspected. I did that about a week ago but just remembered i saw mold elsewhere, so I called again but got her answering machine. I left a message and said where I saw the mold and hung up. I forgot to leave my number so she can’t call me back and there isn’t really a way of knowing whether she got my message or not. Should I call back and make sure she got my message?
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I wouldn’t call back again. Will you be in the school again soon? You can check to see if it was cleaned when you are there.
Mold can be a serious health hazard, especially black mold so it is very important that it is investigated and rectified, especially in a school.
If you spoke to the Principal via her answerphone there is no reason why she did not get the message as I assume she listens to those messages.
I suggest you contact her again and if you get her answerphone again you leave you phone number and request she contact you and inform you what action if any she has taken and also offer to show her where you discovered any other mold..
If she does not get in touch with you the thing you should do is contact her again and diplomatically tell her that if she does not do anything about the mold you will have no alternative but to contact her superiors and if necessary inform the environmental health department in the school’s area.
If I have to guess, the principal is not going to do anything about it unless it’s escalated to someone higher up, for example, social media. I’m not saying that’s what you should do, because it might not go well for your mom, having a child who is a troublemaker. Not saying you are a troublemaker, but that’s how the school administration might view it.
In the school district I live in, a very affluent, small district, there are often things on social media (Facebook) that seem like they’re being swept under the rug until they’re blasted in local parents’ groups. Of course, then the school’s response is that they’ve been working on it, which may or may not be true but nobody hears a peep about it until it’s brought to light on FB.
You might contact the Superintendent (if it’s a district that has one), unless it’s an individual private school in which case there may be a Board or there may not be. You might also post it on a local parents’ group for the school or the district. I’m not saying any of those are recommended – you have to think about what the fallout may be for your mom. Maybe consult with your mom since she works there, and ask her what she thinks should be done, or if she knows if it’s being remediated.
I typed “Who do I contact about mold in my school?” into a search engine and got numerous links to the EPA. Good for you for following up!
https://www.epa.gov/mold
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