Detectors of Mold sue Romeo Schools
A third lawsuit has been filed in Romeo Community Schools’ continuing mold controversy.
Wonder Makers Environmental Inc., the company that was first to find potentially dangerous black mold in Washington Elementary School, is asking for damages for what it says were defamatory remarks made by school officials and others about the company’s work.
Raising defamation as an issue means a court could decide the heart of the mold controversy: How bad were the school’s mold problems?
“I think that might be the best place to find out the truth of the matter, and I’m very confident that the school district’s position will be the correct one,” said Romeo Superintendent John Kingsnorth.
The lawsuit, filed this week in Macomb County Circuit Court, alleges that school officials made statements ranging from accusing Wonder Makers of overstating the mold problems to questioning the company’s methods. Kingsnorth and the district’s attorney, Frank Andrews, said they hadn’t seen the lawsuit and couldn’t comment.
Wonder Makers is also asking the court to force Romeo to pay $90,125 the company says is still owed for its work.
“We have made several requests for payment, both orally and in writing, all of which have been denied, and we have made requests that their defamatory remarks be retracted, and those fell on deaf ears,” said Wonder Makers’ attorney, Norman Yatooma of Birmingham.
Faculty and staff members at the school in Washington Township had complained for more than a decade that something in the building was making people ill.
In June 2001, Wonder Makers of Kalamazoo found stachybotrys, a potentially dangerous black mold, in two areas.
But school officials questioned Wonder Makers’ report and decided to go to another expert, who found the mold in two other areas of the building. The mold has since been cleaned out of the building.
Two other lawsuits are pending in Macomb County Circuit Court.
The parents of Washington student Meaghan Allen, 9, allege their daughter became ill after the district failed to protect students from black mold.
And Statewide Disaster Restoration of Oak Park is suing Romeo schools over $522,600 in unpaid bills for the mold cleanup. School officials have said Statewide’s work went far beyond what was authorized.
