After Leah's room and belongings were condemned, we tried to follow up with what was going on. We received a copy of another campus mold inspector's report from EHS.
My take on it is, they are saying now there is a small square of mold and mold in the air because of the mold inspector we hired. Face meet palm. The report includes plans to remediate that spot. I asked about the rest of the mold and was told that they would not be using Texas Mold's report in their plans for remediation. To me this felt like they would be ignoring the greater issue of mold while "remediating" the small, obvious area. This did not sit well with me at all. I asked about contacting other students that share those walls and got no reply. Leah's RA didn't even that they had found mold so I would guess no one did.
I called, talked to, emailed, met with, Zoom-ed, etc with people from school constantly. We had more questions than answers. The combination of keeping up with this, Leah's health, and trying to replace her things, was basically a full time job. Eventually we were told that the school had a hired a remediation company to pack up Leah's stuff. We were supposed to get an itemized list of all her belongings before they took things, but that didn't happen. Thirteen boxes of her belongings the school said they had decided weren't financially worth remediating. The rest of the stuff had been packed up and sent to wherever they would be cleaned. This was in October. There were more meetings. Fewer answers.
At some point we were given an itemized list of things that remediation company received. Notably missing from it were Leah's computer and all of her backpack contents. I inquired about this and was told they never took a laptop. I shared my concern that the remediation company was saying that the backpack was remediated and clean, but I felt they hadn't even opened it or dealt with the things inside. It took an employee showing a photo of the remediation team loading the laptop up in the room for them to catch on, but sure enough, her belongings were still inside. This set off major red flags for me. Mycotoxins are microscopic. They were no doubt on her laptop and all the other contents of her backpack, yet they were comfortable sending it back saying it was clean without ever addressing the belongings in the bag. Same thing with a suitcase.
It seemed almost every step of this ordeal we were met with gaslighting, pawning off, minimizing, and frustration. As such, we tried to express our concerns to the next rung up the ladder. We were dismissed before we could even meet. So we decided to reach out to the top of the Student Affairs department. We sat down for a meeting and included people from the departments we dealt with on this ordeal. We shared start finish what had happened. There was much agreement that this should not have happened, that it was not handled well, and that Leah's belongings should be replaced.
It took a month before the items were ready to return, yet somehow they "cleaned" the found backpack contents and had them back in College Station in a matter of days. Red flags again. They tested 5 items from her room and said they were mold free so everything was clean. We asked for documents showing the backpack contents had been cleaned, as they had chain of custody for the other items. We were told that they could not write up that documentation after the fact. In other words, it didn't exist.
We were strongly warned by the doctors that Leah could not risk being exposed to mycotoxins again while recovering. They made it clear that we needed to do everything in our power to protect her from that. We were told to not take any of her items back if they were not properly remediated. Because of the fact we could not get answers to our questions and there were what we deemed to be some questionable claims of cleanliness made, we made the incredibly difficult decision to leave all but about 5 irreplaceable items behind. Those items are in ziplocks in an airtight container in the garage. It was too much to let it all go that day.
We explained to the school why we were not comfortable taking her belongings and that there was no way to know what truly had been cleaned and what hadn't. We haven't heard a word from anyone since. I am guessing they just decided to forget about it and move on.
For what it is worth, Leah's original room went through many stages of construction from what you could see. It is pretty clear by this picture that they did indeed find much more than the 6 inches of mold the third inspector said was there. According to someone involved it took THREE tries for them to get a clear test after remediation so that rebuilding could begin. I'll save my thoughts on why that likely is...
In May, Leah found a personal injury lawyer to represent her in trying to force some accountability with the school. She does not want anyone to ever have to go through what she did. It is not okay for the school to do this to kids. Kids go to school to better their lives, to better their future. They should not be left with life altering illness because of living or working conditions. They should be safe and be able to breathe healthy air. Come on, Ags! You can do better!
Parents - Trust your instinct. Listen to your children. Pay attention. Look for signs of water damage. Ask questions and get answers. Know that you have the right to hire an inspector. Choose one that is licensed and reputable. This is an issue on many college campuses and at many apartment complexes.
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