Former teacher sues schools over mold
By
Lauren Wicks | Suffolk News-Herald
Published Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Former Booker T. Washington
Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Cristina Hood filed a lawsuit
against the Suffolk Public School Board Monday, claiming that the School
Board knew about mold and humidity issues at the school and did nothing to
fix the problems.
In the lawsuit, Hood said she
began to feel physically ill within days of being in her classroom, and
the conditions ultimately led to skin ailments, sinus infections and
congestion problems. Hood also said in the suit that she repeatedly
brought the problem to the attention of her supervisors, and was ignored.
Hood is suing for fraud in
the inducement of the contract, actual fraud, violation of civil rights
and intentional/willful negligence.
“It’s really a sad commentary
about the whole school,” said David Bailey, Hood’s attorney, who
specializes in environmental law. “I’ve been in the school several times,
and it’s a great school. Seeing that, and knowing what else was going on,
just made me pretty angry about how two-faced the whole thing really is.
If you’ve got a health problem like that, you’ve got to deal with it. You
can’t tell people who have complained to either suck up or leave, and Mrs.
Hood didn’t buy into that.”
According to the lawsuit, the
school board had “full knowledge” of the damp indoor space problems at the
school and “did not act to correct such problems and did not warn or
advise” Hood of the conditions.
Hood is seeking $600,000 in
damages.
Bethanne Bradshaw, public
information officer for Suffolk Public Schools, said Wednesday morning
that the lawsuit has yet to be served and that with pending litigation,
she is unable to make comments.
Hood tried to bring a similar
suit against the city last year, but dropped the charges when the city
provided documentation that the School Board, not the city, owns the
property.
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