GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Parents and staff are being warned about possible asbestos at North Park Montessori School in Grand Rapids. The school held a meeting with parents on Saturday at GRPS University to explain the findings.
According to a news release from the school district, the situation developed as a result of an air conditioning construction project at the school on Cheney Avenue.
The release goes on to say, “Our construction management team alerted us this afternoon that they discovered they had been cutting and drilling in plaster that has or may have asbestos. This work has been on-going over the last six weeks."
GRPS Executive Director of Communications and External Affairs John Helmhodlt said the first possible exposure of asbestos occurred in November, and that the district was unaware of the toxic mineral.
Upon notification of the asbestos, the school took immediate air samples on Friday and send them to a lab overnight.
“That lab came back with the preliminary results that did not test positive for asbestos,” Helmholdt said.
He also assured that there will be more widespread and aggressive testing done in the school.
“That will be more like 70-80 samples throughout the building. This is done based on the federal regulations."
Marie Claire Camp, mother of two third-grade boys at North Park Montessori says the situation is frustrating.
“We finally got air conditioning in our school, and then we find out that asbestos or lead or whatever is being put into our kinds lungs.”
And North Park Montessori father, Jim Idziak, is skeptical about the school’s claims.
“I really think that there were people that knew that there was asbestos in that building before the project was started.”
Both parents said that students were given incentive to help clean the school’s dust particles, which could contain asbestos. Idziak said his son Walker was offered extra recess time for sweeping up the dust. Camp, who volunteers at the school said children have testified to snorting the dust up their nose, pretending it was cocaine.
Medical experts from Kent County Health Department said that fibers are dangerous when they are inhaled.
“They go into the lining of the lungs. They can cause irritation and overtime increase risk for lung cancer, mesothelioma, chronic lung disease like COPD,” a Kent County Medical Doctor explained.
There are virtually no early symptoms of asbestos exposure, but effects are known to be found later in life.
As a precaution, the district is cancelling school for North Park Montessori for Monday and Tuesday. From Wednesday on, North Park Montessori students will take classes as the GRPS University campus. School officials say the students will likely have to make up the missed days at the end of the school year.
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