Concerned Parent

Chaos. That is the single word I would use to describe the parent meeting last night at Sherwood Forest Elementary. Not for the reason you’d think though. It was not chaos because the parents were upset and shouting, it was not chaos because it wasn’t an organized discussion, NO it was Chaos because the board members of the Norfolk Public Schools were doing the same thing for over an hour and a half expecting different results. Each board member stepped up and tried to “debunk myths”. There are no Myths here folks. Our children are becoming sick, the school staff and teachers are becoming sick, there are rats and roaches in our schools; cafeteria, classes, offices, ceiling, gym, and playgrounds. Let me pose some questions quickly, If your child is healthy overall and you take them to a restaurant and they be come ill, why are they ill? If you feed your child peanut butter and they become ill or have a reaction, why? I’ll answer though it seems self-explanatory. They are ill because of the environment of the restaurant or the health standards, or maybe the food itself either way it stemmed from the restaurant and they are at fault, or they have an allergy to peanut butter. You know what I don’t need to do to figure out the problem?, I don’t need to subject them to it again and again to see that it is a problem. Sherwood Forest Elementary you are the problem. In the cases above you would figure out the issue by having a health inspector come and inspect the restaurant or take the child to a doctor and have them tested for allergies to better understand the extent of their allergies. What wouldn’t be done is explain to the parent to continue taking the child to the restaurant to test what caused them to be ill. The parent wouldn’t be asked to come back day after day with their child as a test subject to try different foods and different staff to see if there is still an issue. No, you get rid of everything and you start from scratch and ensure cleanliness as the restaurant, so you don’t affect more people. Sometimes you may close the business depending on the extent of the issue clean and then reopen. So again, let me pose a question why is this not being done with Sherwood Forest Elementary? The board members stated they are treating the issue as a full-on infestation and attacking the issue aggressively, then why are children still coming to school. There were broken windows in a classroom (maybe more, but I’m speaking from what I saw) and the windows were replaced during school hours at the beginning of the day. To ensure the safety of the children and adults around the area blow torches were used to solder the window into place, but this created fumes in the class that the students then needed to endure while attempting to learn. Not to mention the glass pieces were left in the class.

Now I have brought up quite a few things and so it doesn’t get confusing on what I am talking about I am going to be clear about my analogies. The restaurant analogy I used is the cafeteria at Sherwood Forest that has had a roach crawling out of the bag of food being served to a child. There are rat feces and urine in the cafeteria. Rat traps have been placed in and around the school to include poison rat pellets that were seen on the playground.

The peanut allergy I referred to is the suspected mold and asbestos in the school that is being agitated by the rat and rodent presence. There are tiles in the ceilings of classrooms that are missing, falling apart or damaged from water and rodent presence.

These are not accusations these are finding with photographic proof that has even been shared with the media to raise awareness of the growing situation at Sherwood Forest Elementary and bring to light the blatant neglect and disregard the school board had in informing the parents of the situation at the school or protecting the children and staff that attend the school daily. The blatant disrespect for the school and staff that were shut down by Human Resources of the School when they requested parents be informed.

This evening I spoke with Mr. John Hazelette, acting Deputy Superintendent of Operations at Norfolk Public Schools and I was posed the question that it “could be seasonal allergies and illnesses going around, they would need to look at the attendance records” to and compare if the school and the techniques being used to treat the issue were in direct correlation of each other. I asked, “where the superintendent was and why they were not at the meeting” the answer was “I don’t know”. During our conversation I had informed Mr. Hazelette of things going on in his school even he was unaware of. He said “they have missed the mark,” that goes without saying. Mr. Hazelette promised to call me today to speak with me over the phone one on one and have found some answers to the questions myself and the other parents were asking. Because he didn’t know to what extent this situation needed to escalate to before they would do what is right and best for our children; and close the school, launch a full investigation, and cleaning of the school before bringing the students and staff back into teach, learn, grow and develop. Hopefully the next meeting the board can learn from their mistakes and instead of coming to talk to us come and listen to the problems take note and be able to provide the parents and staff with adequate proof and assurances that their environment is safe and conducive to growing minds and bodies as well as the teachers and staff that are in the building daily.

As a side note to paint a vivid picture of how this is affecting me as a parent speaking for myself, I am finishing writing this at 2:12 am on Wednesday morning because I am unable to sleep with the concerns on my mind about what is being done in my four year old daughter’s school to make sure she is safe. If I can’t sleep, I am sure many others are having a hard time resting when their children are suffering from the illnesses, they have contracted from the environment they are currently being provided at Sherwood Forest Elementary school. I hope the school board members have a difficult time sleeping as well and are taking our concerns very seriously. I hope they are kept up at night like us parents thinking of ways to protect these children.