MONROE, Wash. — A local health department closed parts of a Snohomish County school after unusual test results showed the possible existence of a toxic chemical.
Monroe Public Schools and Snohomish County Health District closed seven school spaces inside the Monroe's Sky Valley Education Center.
Monroe school officials announced on Wednesday that they received results in December showing “strikingly high” levels of manufactured organic chemicals known as Polychlorinated Biphenyls or PCBs.
Officials called the results an anomaly because of a control test that came back high. In a second test in January, results showed no concern, according to the school district.
In order to be absolutely certain there are no harmful levels of PCB, the district is now hiring a different company to do a third test. The health district advised those spaces to be vacated before the test is done, out of extreme caution.
KIRO 7 News’ Natasha Chen asked why parts of the building were just closed this week if startling results came in last year.
"That occurred around the time that we had the holiday break so we weren't using the the building," said Dr. Fredrika Smith, the superintendent of Monroe Public Schools.
Smith said the second test in January, showing no PCB, was done around the same time students came back from winter break.
But KIRO 7 spoke to two teachers, who obtained reports showing the second test samples weren't collected until January 16th, 13 days after students and staff came back from winter break.
"If you flip a coin once and you get heads, and you flip a coin a second time and you get tails, does that mean you're going to get tails every time after that when you flip?" said Dylan Neary, a math teacher at Sky Valley Education Center.
He and his twin brother Shamus Neary spend a lot of time teaching in the classroom that tested at the highest levels of PCB in the December sample.
When asked what he thought of the second test results in January showing no PCB, Shamus Neary said, “That did console me a little bit.”
But they both said they wished they had known about the first test results before returning to class.
They said their skepticism is due to a history of complaints of staff and students becoming ill from being in the building.
Shamus Neary removed his daughter from school when she showed signs of extremely early onset of puberty.
Other parents told KIRO 7 similar stories, about children who experienced a wide range of issues, including burning eyes, rashes, sore throats, headaches, and difficulty breathing in school spaces.
During the 2015-16 school year, Jill Savery and Stacy Mullen-Deland both removed their children from the school.
“The program’s awesome. The teachers are wonderful. The community’s great. The building is not safe,” said Jill Savery. “The school district is doing what they believe is right. But it’s not enough.”
Savery’s older daughter experienced seizures.
Mullen-Deland’s daughter had nose bleeds that lasted long periods of time. Her son had to be put on heart medication and had thyroid issues.
These parents said their children had previously been healthy and active.
Mullen-Deland showed KIRO 7 an email from the Snohomish County Health District saying there had been more than 100 reports of illnesses from students and staff at Sky Valley Education Center. While they said doctors have told them they believe the children are exposed to chemical poisoning, there has yet to be an official link between the multitude of health problems and PCB at the school.
Monroe Public Schools officials said frequent testing shows no issues with PCB levels. Since the 2015-16 school year, Smith said the district has invested in renovations on campus and have since seen few, if any, reports of illness.
“As a mom, and a grandma, I take that very seriously. When I say that the health and well-being of our families and staff is of the highest importance, we would never take a chance and put people in an environment that we don’t believe to be safe. And I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to bring any of my family members to school here,” Smith said.
Cox Media Group
