LAWRENCEBURG — School district officials have agreed to let a second environmental firm inspect Lawrenceburg High School for more potentially dangerous mold.

        In May, Dearborn County Health Department officials issued an order calling for more testing of mold in the high school, which was detected earlier through preliminary testing and led to the closing of most of the high school's fourth floor.

        Lawrenceburg school district officials then moved quickly to clean parts of the school building and hired an indoor environmental quality firm to conduct further testing.

        But an attorney representing a Lawrenceburg parent, who claims her daughter has been chronically sickened by exposure to airborne mold spores in the high school, recently complained that a second environmental firm should be used to check for further mold infestation.

        "I had major questions about the first firm the school board hired,” said attorney Robert Trainor, who specializes in mold litigation and represents the Lawrenceburg parent.

        Mr. Trainor said the first firm was not diligent enough in testing for more possible sources of the most dangerous mold found in the school — stachybotrys chartarum — which prompted the immediate closing of some classrooms by district officials.

        Superintendent Todd Rudnick said district officials have responded to Mr. Trainor's concerns, and those of the Dearborn County health officials, by allowing a second testing firm to inspect the high school.

        "We are agreeable to that. I don't want anyone to think we are hiding anything, and they are more than welcome to come in and investigate,” said Mr. Rudnick.

        "We want to get rid of the mold as bad as anyone else does,” he said.

        County health officials ordered the district to clean the high school's heating and cooling systems, remove wallpaper and water-damaged ceiling materials, and clean and reseal windows.

        Mr. Rudnick added that the district expects to extensively clean the 500-student school building during the summer, but that until the extent of mold infestation is determined, no cost estimates can be made.

        Some Lawrenceburg parents say they have complained for months that mold underneath peeling wallpaper in some of the classrooms was making some students ill.

        Symptoms of exposure to airborne mold spores can duplicate allergic and asthmatic responses in some people. In other cases, they can expand into severe and chronic illnesses, such as severe headaches, shortness of breath, burning eyes, sinus and respiratory infections, rashes, severe itching, dizziness, memory loss and fatigue.

        Mold has caused problems in several Tristate schools in recent months. In February, Sycamore Schools officials discovered potentially dangerous mold on a single ceiling tile in a storage closet at Maple Dale Elementary School in Blue Ash. The school was closed for two days while the building was checked.

        In March, two temporary classrooms outside Milford South Elementary in Clermont County were temporarily closed while being tested for mold.

        In April a classroom in Robert E. Lucas Intermediate School in the Princeton School district was closed for the school year because of mold contamination concerns.

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