Mold forced girl to leave Centertown Elementary

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

To prevent the building’s mold and mildew from further aggravating her allergies, Jane Basham, 7, left Centertown Elementary upon the recommendation of her doctor. She is now home schooled. (Will Stewart photo)

While Jane Basham, 7, has had allergies nearly all her young life, they had always been controllable. That changed when she entered kindergarten at Centertown Elementary in 2002.

“The school’s clean, but the mold and mildew can’t be controlled there,” said Basham’s mother, Jill. “I can’t imagine how it doesn’t make a lot of other kids sick.”

Jill said her daughter’s allergies became severe soon after the start of 2002-2003 school year. Basham’s kindergarten classroom, along with all of the school’s kindergarten through third grade classrooms, are located in the school basement. This portion of the building, by all accounts, is the worst for mold and mildew, in addition to flooding.

By December, Jane had exceeded the number of allowable absences for the entire year due to ear infections and heavy drainage problems.

The drainage problems caused Jane to have trouble breathing, which resulted in poor sleeping, in turn causing her to have dark circles under her eyes most of the year.

“Medicine couldn’t control her allergies when she was in school. Nothing helped,” said Jill.

But as soon as Basham was out of school – and the school’s damp basement – for Christmas break, her symptoms cleared up. They came back when she returned to school in January and remained until summer break, when they vanished once again. Three days into her first-grade year last August and her allergies made their return.

“We took her back to the doctor and he asked what changed and we told him,” said Jill. “He said her little body couldn’t take another year of that and recommended changing schools.

“We love Centertown and it was hard to replace a school so perfect for you. My husband wanted to home school Jane so we did and it’s worked out great.”

“I feel fine now,” said Jane, who started second grade Monday. “I can breathe a lot better.”

Centertown principal Janie Moore said cases like Basham’s are not common, though they have occurred with some frequency since she took the helm of the school in the late ’80s.

“It’s an ongoing problem, no question about it,” said Moore. “It usually only affects the children who are already susceptible, maybe 1/2 to 1 percent of kids. It seems to continue until they’re older and come out of the basement.”