Students Protest at Asbestos-Laden School

December 13, 2006 - Students at Parry Sound High School in central Ontario, Canada, walked out of classes this week to protest the handling of asbestos at their school.  The students, numbering about 50, withstood the very cold weather to protest the condition of their high school by standing across the street for most of the day.

A Parry Sound newspaper reports that asbestos was found in the ceiling of a hallway at the school and that the hallway and several classrooms had been closed since last week.  Though work on asbestos abatement was being done after school hours, many parents chose to pull their children out of school and not allow them to return until the abatement is complete.

“My friends talked to the principal about it and we’ve talked to teachers, they haven’t given us very much information,” said 11th grader Shawna Woods.

Shawna’s father, Don Woods, a former student at the high school, can’t understand why the presence of asbestos wasn’t addressed years ago.

“Why wasn’t this problem fixed a long time ago?” he said. “They knew about it, they knew about it when I was in school.”

After the discovery last week, the newspaper reports, three classrooms were shut down while testing was done to confirm there was no evidence of airborne asbestos in the room. Director of Education Colin Vickers said that two of the classrooms were to reopen Tuesday with work scheduled to be done in the third.

“There is no evidence of any substance that’s harmful to students or staff in the classroom. While we’re there, we’re going to cover something that could be,” said Mr. Vickers.

It’s that kind of ambiguity that kept the 50 students from participating in classes earlier this week. 

“I think they need to shut the whole school down and get it (asbestos) out,” said Nickie Smith, grade 12. “Everyone thinks their health is at risk and all that, from this stuff.”

“It’s absurd; we’re going to school and can get cancer in 10 years. Plus, our roof is leaking, it’s raining, it’s not safe to be in the school,” said Shelby Mahon, age 15, referring to garbage buckets collecting water leaking from the ceiling on the second floor of the school.