Teacher tells story of poisoning of students
My name is Julie Payne. I am a 5th grade teacher at Oakley Elementary School, located at 753 Fairview Road, Asheville, NC 28803. I would like to inform you about what has become known as "the Oakley thing" which began innocently enough, and has ended up being a discovery of possible misuse of chemicals in the form of pesticides in our school. I have a story to tell, and I am asking for someone with authority to listen to my story and act on this incident of probable wrong doing for the safety and welfare of the students and faculty at Oakley.
Before our head custodian, Rick Goldsmith left for his surgery November 7, 2000; he told me he "fogged" (used pesticide) in the 4th and 5th grade hallway in front of the Title 1 room on the 2nd floor of Oakley Elementary School. When I told him I left tea bags inside an Ingles grocery bag on my counter, he told me "It's probably okay to use, because the fogger was placed down the hall in front of the Title 1 room." Rick showed me where he had placed the fogger.
January 19, 2001, faculty& staff at Oakley received a daily memo from the principal, Mrs. Drury; stating that the custodians would be spraying with pesticides, so cover any food left in the classrooms. It also stated that they would be spraying during the week instead of on Friday as had been done in the past.
January 25, 2001, 2 of my students complained of chest pains. I filled out forms for these students to take to the school nurse. They returned to the classroom, the nurse was not at Oakley on this day. I told them to sit at the back table. Immediately they laid their heads on the table and continued to complain of chest pains. I wrote both students notes to the office to call their parents. As they left my classroom, I called Donna Brown, an Oakley secretary, and told her to "tell their mothers to take these students to a doctor. They were obviously in a lot of pain, and seemed to have trouble breathing. Ten year olds should not have trouble breathing and complain of chest pains."
January 25, 2001, while driving home I thought about the memo dated January 19, 2001 regarding the spraying of pesticides during the week. I wondered if there might be a connection between this and my students' respiratory problems. Also, my own daughters have been ill for about one week at this time, and the doctor who examined them said she could not pinpoint what it is, and said it was probably a type of flu virus. My daughters also had a skin rash, one on her chest, and the other on her face. I also knew of 2 other students down the hall with mysterious skin rashes. I had taken two Bayer aspirin the same morning, and my assistant had also complained of a headache that day. Also, while reading aloud to my students that morning I suddenly became choked, as if my throat were closing up, and my eyes watered terribly. I thought about all of these symptoms, and called a friend, seeking a second opinion. My friend suggested I request a "Material Safety Data Sheet" (MSD) from the school listing the chemicals used to spray the hallways and classrooms, and the possible side effects of these chemicals.
I then called Carol Buckner, the school secretary, and asked whom I should contact for the MSD sheet. She said she wasn't sure, but try calling the maintenance department at Buncombe County Central Office, and she gave me the phone number. I called the number and Clark answered. I requested the MSD sheet for the foggers sprayed at Oakley. He said, "We haven't sprayed there since last spring." I informed him of the memo we received the previous week saying Oakley was being sprayed during the week. He said he would find out, and call me back. Clark called back within 5 minutes. He said he had a record stating Rick Goldsmith picked up "a bunch" of foggers and he would hand-deliver the MSD sheet to me the next day, or he could fax it to me immediately. I told him I was on my way home; therefore just bring it the next day.
When I got home, I called a friend who is also a teacher at Oakley. I told her about the phone conversation with Clark, and she discussed with me her concern for her son's health. He also attends Oakley. A doctor told him that week, "I don't know exactly what is wrong with him, probably just the flu." I told her of my concern for these students who line up against the walls where the foggers are set. She said that her son bites his nails, which means he could be ingesting some of these chemicals. She also complained of a headache that day. Then she remembered something, and said, "Mrs. Drury called for you today on the school intercom." She said, it kind of startled me, because she sounded mean." I asked her what time this announcement was made, she estimated around 4:15-4:30. I hung up the phone and went out for dinner.
When I returned home, there was a message on my answering machine from Mrs. Drury. She said (in a pleasant voice), "call me either before 5:00 at school or after 8:00 at home." She ended with, "if you don't get with me tonight, see me first thing in the morning in my office." I did not call Mrs. Drury. I called NC Poison Control and asked questions about the foggers. A woman named Laura told me to call back the next day with the exact chemicals used from the MSD, but if misuse of the chemicals were in question she said, "I would not send my kids back to that school."
January 26, 2001, my children stayed home with their father. I went straight to Mrs. Drury's office. While I was waiting, someone hinted to me that I was in "hot water" with Mrs. Drury. Someone else had overheard a conversation between Mrs. Drury and Rick Goldsmith after 4:00 the previous day, when they heard Rick say, "she doesn't know what can of worms she just opened up!" (This was also the time of the "mean" announcement for me to come to the office.) After waiting 20 minutes in the office for Mrs. Drury, Rick Goldsmith came in. I asked, "How are you?" He answered, friendly enough, then told me that I should have asked him about the spraying instead of calling the central office. The secretary, Carol overhead this, and added, "I gave her the number. I told her to call the central office." Rick made some kind of joke as he walked out regarding "knowing which end of the horse you are beating."
At 8:10 am, I left the office to see if Mrs. Drury was in the cafeteria. I ran into her just outside the double doors of the cafeteria. Rick Goldsmith emerged from the boy's restroom to join our conversation. They both told me, "we have not sprayed pesticides in this school since September 2000." I asked about the memo saying they had sprayed during the week. They both said again they "had not sprayed since last September." Rick walked away, and Mrs. Drury continued, explaining the "misinformation" on the memo. She explained the maintenance men could not get to Oakley until Friday, so no pesticide had been sprayed. She further stated, "the reason we really put in the memo for teachers to cover their food left in the classroom because this is what attracts the insects into the building. Not because it wouldn't be safe to eat. The pesticides we use are completely safe." She reiterated the fact that I should not have gone to the central office, instead ask she or Rick in the future, because now Rick would have to meet with the central office who contacted him the previous day.
Mrs. Drury called me on the telephone in my room just after 9:00 am. Two maintenance men from the central office were there to deliver the MSD sheet I had requested. They also assured me that these are safe chemicals, and not harmful to students. (Look at the "health hazards" on the sheet and deicide for yourself.) Misuse of the product at this point was moot, because Rick did not admit to spraying anything since September, 2000.
I started asking questions. I asked at least 10 other teachers if they remembered any spraying of pesticides since September 2000. They did. They remembered a memo sometime in November or December stating the school would be spraying. (Remember - Rick showed me where one of the foggers had been placed around this time.) I asked my assistant, Nellie Henderson to pull the memos from November and December 2000. She came back and said, "Every day you hand me one of those memos, and every day I file it in this file. Today, all that we have for November is 2 memos." I do not know how to explain this. Another staff member told me that the stack of memos that used to sit under the faculty mailboxes has also disappeared.
Many teachers told me of headaches, rashes, and respiratory problems experienced by both faculty and students. I know of 2 teachers taking a "third round" of antibiotics, because their doctors cannot figure out what is causing their symptoms. Children who did not normally miss school were absent. I also found my attendance record an anomaly. Not so much for the increase in absences, but for the medical reasons that the students gave for being ill. My students were going home with chest pains, headaches, and skin rashes. Strange.
This day as I drove home, I thought about my conversation with Mrs. Drury and Rick Goldsmith. I realized, not only did they not give me credit for trying to figure out why our students and my children were sick, they never mentioned a concern for the students whatsoever. They seemed more worried about protocol, the chain of command that I needed to follow, instead of the welfare of our children. Over the weekend, I decided to leave Oakley for good. I could no longer work for someone who refused to allow me to hold the children as the main focus in my important job as a teacher. I was also a bit embarrassed because I had opened up this proverbial "can of worms" and what good did it do? I began to think maybe they hadn't sprayed since September. I felt humiliated and defeated.
January 29, 2001, I came to Oakley to give lesson plans to my substitute, and then I returned home to my own sick children. I returned that afternoon to tell Mrs. Drury my intentions for leaving Oakley. We filled out a pink form with the help of Carol Buckner, and debated my effective date of termination. I was told I was expected to work a 30-day notice, but could leave after the job had been posted for 2 weeks. We tentatively stated February 16, 2001 as my effective date, possibly as early as February 9, 2001. As I left Mrs. Drury 's office, I felt my issue with the pesticides cost me my eight years of college and 2+ years as a teacher. This would have been my year to receive tenure. And Mrs. Drury's words rang in my head, "if you leave now, you will not be hired again in Buncombe County. I know of a teacher who left in November, and none of us will hire her back now." The more I thought about this, the more upset I got. I just blew my 10-year dream of being a teacher. For what?
I drove to the central office. I asked where the maintenance department was located. The receptionist, Mandy, told me that maintenance is a separate building located on Riverside Drive, and she gave me directions how to get there. I drove over, walked in, and asked the receptionist if Clark was there. She went to check, returned and said, "No, he is not here." I asked if Cecil (head of maintenance) was there. She pointed him out, as he sat at a table in an adjoining room talking to someone. She walked over to Cecil, and then told me to "go on in." Cecil had talked to my ex-husband the previous day. He said that he talked to Mrs. Drury and Rick Goldsmith, and they assured him there had been no spraying of pesticides since September 2000. He also told me how safe the chemicals were that they used. I asked Cecil to check the date when Rick received the foggers from the central office. He walked out of the room and I followed him. He went to a stock room and asked a man there to read some of the numbers from the pesticides on the shelf. The man commented, "Is this that Oakley thing?" I rounded the corner at that time and replied, "Yes. This is that Oakley thing!" Cecil wrote down three numbers and took them to a computer operator, who told us, Oakley received 24 cans of pesticide foggers on OCTOBER 30, 2000. Only 6 cans were taken in September, and less than that the previous year. I told Cecil, this begs the question. What are Mrs. Drury and Rick Goldsmith trying to cover up? Why would Rick pick up 24 foggers, and not use them? Who is lying and why? Cecil wrote down my phone number and said he would check it out and call me back.
January 30, 2001, I still did not return to school. My children were still sick, and I took my 5 year old back to the doctor again (she saw the doctor the prior week on Tuesday). I also enrolled my two daughters in another school effective Wednesday, January 31, 2001. Cecil called me that afternoon. He said he went to Oakley, where he found 4 of the 24 foggers checked out to Rick on October 30, 2000. He said Rick admitted using the foggers, mainly in the rafters in the ceiling of the old building, as well as in hallways and in a few classrooms in both buildings. He also said he "did not wipe down anything, because the can didn't say you had to." (Rick has cleaned my classroom for the past 2-½ years. I have never known of him "wiping down" anything except the tray at the white board occasionally.) The can did say, "ventilate the area" before returning to the place where the foggers were used. (In my mind, doubtful.)
January 31, 2001 I returned to work for a full day. My youngest daughter was still at home sick, however my oldest daughter attended her first day at her new school, Sand-Hill Venable Elementary. That afternoon at 1:15pm I walked into the cafeteria to find Mrs. Drury, Rick Goldsmith, Pat Wright, and Bill Tyler in a meeting regarding the use of 20 cans of foggers from the time Rick received the cans from the central office October 30, 2000 until the time he left for medical reasons around or on November 7, 2000. It was stated in this meeting that Bill Tyler was left the responsibility of setting and dispersing the pesticide. He admitted that he had no training or experience, and his concern was that "you have to run because the thing goes off immediately, and I' m not a good runner." Bill has also been experiencing health problems lately.
At this meeting on January 31, 2001, I heard the three custodians and Mrs. Drury say "most of the spraying was in the attic of the old building, as well as inside Jan Ferguson's and Marianne McMinn' s classrooms, and in that hallway." I asked Mrs. Drury why she and Rick lied to me by saying they had not sprayed since September 2000. She replied, "We did not intentionally lie, we forgot about spraying in the old building." I asked her why she called me to the office on January 26, 2001 and then called me at home the same date, anxious to talk to me. She said, "I was concerned about your children. I heard that your two children went home with chest pains and I wanted to find out if they were okay." I replied, "Mrs. Drury, you didn't even ask about my children. You never even said the word, CHILDREN. You just told me that I should have talked to you or Rick instead of calling the central office." Mrs. Drury said, "Well, by that time everything was escalated."
February 1, 2001, I left Oakley and drove to the Buncombe County Central Office at 175 Bingham Road. I walked in and headed for Superintendent Dodson's office. I waited in a chair his secretary 's office. I could hear someone talking to Mr. Dodson, and waited for this person to leave. I recognized and spoke to this person, then walked into Mr. Dodson's office. I introduced myself, "I' m Julie Payne, a teacher at Oakley School." I asked if he had time to listen to me, as he took the 5-page letter to him explaining the events that had taken place in the past week. He stood beside his desk and read the letter. His first comment was, "You have made some serious charges against these two people, Mrs. Drury, and Rick Goldsmith." I told him everything written was true. We discussed the use of pesticides at Oakley, and the events leading up to our meeting. I told him I did not feel that contacting the custodian and the principal at Oakley, the head of the central office maintenance department, NC Poison Control, or his own secretary had done anything about getting a response to this problem. He stated that he took offence at my including his secretary in this list. I asked if she told him that someone tried to contact him about this issue 6 days ago on Friday. He said, "She told me about it today." I asked again if she told him about it on Friday, and he said, "No." I told him it had been almost one week since I found out about the 20 foggers being used at Oakley, kids were still complaining of skin rashes and respiratory problems, and no one, including his office had acted on this. He said he would look into it. Then asked, "Now what school is this again?"
February 2, 2001, Sandy Griffin, a former teacher' s assistant at Oakley, called and asked how things at work were going. I told her about the pesticide problem. Sandy has two grandsons who attend Oakley, and she told her daughter in law, Mary about it. Mary called me that night. She said her son had a skin rash and they had taken him to the doctor since September 2000. She said the doctor had tried everything. Her son complained that when sitting on the carpet in his classroom, "it feels like fleas are in the carpet." He said the itching bothered him more at school, especially when sitting on the carpet than at home. Mary said she planned on talking to Mrs. Drury on Monday morning and asking her for a list of the chemical contents of the fogger for her son's doctor. She also asked me what we could do to make sure the school was safe. I told her of my frustration with trying to get a response out of anyone at Buncombe County Central Office or from Oakley. Mary and I decided to call the newspaper and/or the local TV station, hoping public awareness would help get something done to make sure Oakley is safe for the students and faculty there.
February 5, 2001, Mary and I met with Clint Parker from the Asheville Tribune. We told him about the pesticides used at Oakley. I found out then, that Mary talked to Mrs. Drury that morning and received a list of ingredients of one of the foggers, which she pulled from her closet in her office. She wrote the contents by hand and copied this list for Mary, claiming she "would probably need it again for someone else." Mrs. Drury assured Mary that the contents were safe, and that it couldn't have been the pesticides causing her son's rash, because they "didn't use the foggers until NOVEMBER, 2000." She added, "We only sprayed in the elevator shaft, so unless your son was in the elevator, I wouldn't worry."
Mary got a different answer than I had gotten, first they told me they "hadn't sprayed since September, 2000." Then they admitted using 20 foggers after October 30, 2000. They never disputed the September date with me, and I have a memo dated Friday, September 1, 2000, stating:
"We are periodically spraying for bugs. Be sure you place anything consumable in a covered container before you leave each day. We generally try to spray on Friday but sometimes it is during the week."
Mary and I told Mr. Parker everything we knew, and repeated, "We just want someone to take responsibility for this, and tell the parents of the Oakley students what has been sprayed, so if their children have been affected by these pesticides, they can get treatment from a doctor. We think the parents should be told!"
February 6, 2001, I learned from a teacher at Oakley, Vickie Bailey, that sometime in November 2000, she came into the building in front of the computer lab and found two cans of Kill Zone Insect Fogger on the floor where they had been set the day before. Both cans had white rings of powder circling the can where the fogger left residual chemicals on the floor. Students were walking around these cans to get to their classes. Parents and preschoolers were walking around these cans to get to the Head Start classroom in the same hallway. Vickie picked up the cans and disposed of them, then cleaned up the chemicals on the floor. (The MSD sheet says to place the fogger up on a table, not to place the fogger on the floor.)
February 7, 2001, I took a personal day off work. I wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on, and the social climate at work is not pleasant for me these days. I have teachers who walk up to me and say they support what I am doing, but they are afraid to lose their jobs by joining me. The principal has simply ignored me. Rick Goldsmith has been surprisingly polite, however.
I called the Chase Products Co. who makes Kill Zone Indoor Fogger to request an updated MSD. I realized after looking again at the MSD sheet from the central office, that it was prepared on 4/25/95. I called Chase Products, the manufacturers of Kill Zone Indoor Insect Fogger, and a woman there told me to look it up on the internet at the address: www.chaseproducts.com. I printed out a new MSD. The MSD lists the following:
"Use with adequate general and local exhaust ventilation, conventional eyeglasses to guard against splashing, and household type gloves." Also, "One 6-ounce can of this product treats up to 6,000 cubic feet." And there is a "residual effect for 14 days."
I also visited Clint Parker at the Asheville Tribune to give him the new MSD. He told me that he talked to Mrs. Drury, who stated, "we found an extra case of Kill Zone in a 'locked closet' that we didn't realize we had, so we only used 8 cans instead of 20 cans since October 31, 2000." I was expecting this. I heard through the grape vine that the central office supplied Oakley with an extra case of foggers to make it look as though they used less than 20 cans. Remember, Mrs. Drury and Rick Goldsmith told me and Cecil from the maintenance department they had used 20 cans since receiving them in October, 2000. They said they "didn't intentionally lie."
Are they not 'intentionally lying' again? I am not comfortable with either explanation. They either used 20 cans since the end of October 2000, or they forgot about using 8 foggers, as well as forgot and misplaced 12 more foggers stored in the building during the past few weeks. Either scenario proves to me that the people making the decisions at this school are not responsible enough for me to keep my own children at this school.
Also on February 7, 2001, I called the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Raleigh, NC and spoke with Carl Falco. He had Randy Oliver with him in his office and our conversation was via speakerphone so that Randy could hear what was going on. Randy is with a division of the EPA known as Structural Pesticide Control and he agreed to drive to Asheville that day to investigate.
Mrs. Drury called and left a message I received when I returned home saying the central office approved my exit date, effective February 6, 2001.
February 8, 2001, Randy Oliver and Rick Reed came to my house to interview me about the pesticide use (or probable misuse) at Oakley School. Mary Griffin and her two sons were also at this meeting. We told him everything we knew and gave them copies of the old MSD sheet, an updated MSD sheet from the Internet, copies of school memos regarding spraying pesticides, and documentation of the events taken place in the past two weeks. Rick Reed took a statement from Mary stating her son's physical problems since September, including skin rashes and a low white blood cell count, resulting in nonuse of his legs. They left my house and went to Oakley to conduct interviews at the school.
I went to Oakley shortly after to clean out my classroom and tell my students goodbye. I also met with Mrs. Drury and gave her a copy of the events from my perspective, which occurred in the past two weeks. I told her that this could have been taken care of at our first meeting if she and Rick had taken responsibility for the use of pesticides and offered to contact the parents to begin with. Mrs. Drury informed me that my students needed to see me and say goodbye, but now, "they have that closure, and you do not return to this school without calling me and scheduling a time after 3:00pm to come back when students have already gone home."
I also learned on this day that Mr. Page, the Assistant Superintendent of Buncombe County Schools called a meeting of all faculty and staff (even part-timers) for the afternoon of February 8, 2001. According to a friend who attended the meeting, Mr. Page assured the faculty that the foggers used were perfectly safe, and not to worry about students being poisoned by this product. He did not bring up the fact that Oakley may have used too much of the fogger. When asked by a teacher if the rooms could be tested for this chemical he joked, "What are we going to do, put air in a bottle and test it?" I assume that my effective date of termination being backdated to February 6, 2001 had something to do with this meeting on February 7, 2001. I was not informed of the meeting, much less invited to come in and ask questions or give my opinion on the issue.
However, when I called the school that morning, February 7, 2001 to see if the new teacher needed any help as far as what lessons my students were studying, the school secretary said, "Where are you? Your class is without a teacher. We thought you were coming in today." A substitute was called in at that time. That day, Buncombe County Schools had an early dismissal for students at 12:30pm. I returned to the school to clean out my classroom and tell my students goodbye. I arrived in the classroom around 12:00, and talked with the students until 12:30. Lots of hugs and tears and exchange of phone numbers took place. Upon leaving the classroom, I went to the office to see Mrs. Drury. She told me that now "your students have had closure. If you need to return to this school to pick up anything else, call me first and come in after 3:00pm when the students have left. They do not need to see you again."
So where does this leave the welfare of the students and faculty at Oakley? The principal and head custodian has lied to us over and over again. Chemicals have been sprayed, and the misuse of these chemicals is still in question. You decide if you would want your child to be subjected to what the students at Oakley have been exposed to. This incident shattered my dream of being a teacher. The students in my classroom can only feel betrayed when their teacher leaves so abruptly and so near the end of the year. The adjustment of all of this has taken a toll on my family and my students. Not to mention, it also meant putting my children and the students at Oakley at risk of chemical poisoning. But what can we do?A few items from the MSDS for this fogger:
Kill Zone Insect Fogger
1. Product And Company Identification Supplier / Manufacturer:
Chase Products Co.
19th and Gardner Road
Broadview, IL 60155 USA
Company Contact: Aludia B. Hernandez
Telephone Number: 708-865-1000
FAX Number: 708-865-0923
E - M a i l : sales@chaseproducts.com
Web Site: www.chaseproducts.com
Supplier/Manufacturer Emergency Contacts & Phone Number
Chem-Tel: 1-800-255-3924 Chem-Tel: 1-800-255-3924
Issue Date: 11/17/2000
Product Name: KILL ZONE INDOOR FOGGER
Chemical Name: 7-7665
CAS Number: Not Established
EPA Registry Number: 498-146
MSDS Number: 254
Product Code: 419-2180
Product/Material Uses - Indoor Insect Fogger Insecticide
2. Composition/Information On Ingredients
Ingredient CAS Percent Of
Name Number Total Weight
ISOBUTANE 75-28-5
PARAFFINIC SOLVENT LOW ODOR 64742-96-7
PROPANE 74-98-6
PYRETHRUM 8003-34-7
The ingredients listed on this section are only the hazardous components of the product.
3. Hazards Identification
Primary Routes(s) Of Entry - Ingestion (possible, but considered unlikely), eye contact, inhalation.
Eye Hazards - Contact with eyes can result on irritation.
Skin Hazards - Prolonged contact with skin can cause irritation.
Ingestion Hazards - This is an aerosol product, ingestion is unlikely to occur.
Inhalation Hazards - Prolonged inhalation of vapor or spray mist may cause headaches, nausea and dizziness.
Chronic/Carcinogenicity Effects - None of the ingredients on this product are listed as carcinogenic by NTP, IARC or OSHA.
Epidemiology - None known
Teratogenicity (Birth Defects) - None known
Reproductive Effects - None known
Neurotoxicity - None known
Mutagenicity (Genetic Effect) - None known
Signs And Symptoms - Acute: Prolonged inhalation of vapor or spray mist may cause headaches, nausea and dizziness. Irritating to the eyes on contact. Prolonged and repeated contact with the skin can cause irritation.
Conditions Aggravated By Exposure - May aggravate pre-existing skin and respiratory disorders. Do not remain on
the area during treatment.
Conditions Aggravated By Overexposure - Pre-existing skin and respiratory disorders.
[Note: "None known" really means that the manufacturers don't have to do the studies necessary. This is really reassuring given that DDT was also under "none known" category and as a result considered safe to use everywhere.]
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