A Pa­lo Seco Sec­ondary school­teacher af­flict­ed with a strain of air­borne fun­gus is plan­ning to take le­gal ac­tion against the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry for fail­ing to pro­vide a safe en­vi­ron­ment for pupils and staff. This was re­vealed yes­ter­day by pres­i­dent of the Par­ent/Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion Raphael Samuel, who re­leased pho­tos of the teacher's fun­gal in­fec­tion with his per­mis­sion.

Samuel said for a sec­ond day, the school re­mained closed as teach­ers walked off the job. He said two teach­ers, two cler­i­cal work­ers and a stu­dent were af­fect­ed by the fun­gus. The mat­ter was first re­port­ed to the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion in June, but Samuel said noth­ing was done to rec­ti­fy the prob­lem. Since then the fun­gus has spread from the art room to the ad­min­is­tra­tive of­fice, the staff room and the fe­male wash­room.

"Right now the sit­u­a­tion is alarm­ing. Teach­ers and stu­dents are fear­ful about com­ing in­to the build­ing," Samuel said. He added that the PTA was in full sup­port of the teach­ers' de­ci­sion not to at­tend class­es. Samuel al­so called on Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh to de­clare the school closed un­til the fun­gus is erad­i­cat­ed. He rec­om­mend­ed that the min­istry make arrange­ments to re­lo­cate all Form Four and Five pupils to the Beach Camp fa­cil­i­ty at Pa­lo Seco so that prepa­ra­tions could con­tin­ue for the up­com­ing CAPE and CXC ex­ams.