'We just want it gone': Mom frustrated with asbestos response

A Kensington, P.E.I., mom is voicing frustration that asbestos won't be removed from her son's school until next summer.

Darby McCormick's eldest son is heading into Grade 2 at Queen Elizabeth Elementary school in September.

It was almost better to not know it was there and not have it in your head, but now it's there and there are a lot of parents who are very concerned.- Darby McCormick

McCormick said she and other parents at the school are frustrated because they feel the news came out of nowhere.

"Our onlyinformationhas come from the news, and I assume I might assume incorrectly but I would hope that our principal was made aware before it went to the media that our school was not on that list.We weren't made aware as a parent body so it's a lot of, 'What do we do now?'" she said.

"The teachers and staff worked extra hours at the beginning of the summer to get our school ready to be done. We have a daycare that rents space in our school for a before and after school program andthey had to find a new location for the summer because we were told the asbestos would be removed, but theydidn'thave a timeline for it at all."

Asbestos was found in the ceiling tiles of nine Island schools earlier this year. The province says removing the asbestos from all nine schools at once wasn't feasible, so two schools Queen Elizabeth Elementary andEast Wiltshire Intermediate in Cornwall won't be done until next summer.

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No guarantees

McCormick said she knows the asbestos shouldn't cause any problems as long as the ceiling tiles are left alone, but she's still concerned.

"Yes, theyare quite high and there shouldn't be anything to affect them, but you can never 100 per cent guarantee that nothing will happen to disturb them except take them out.And now it looks like we're going to have wait until next summer, so spend an entire other school year knowing that this asbestos is in the school," she said.

"It was almost better to not know it was there, and not have it in your head, but now it's there and there are a lot of parents who are very concerned that it's there."

Feeling helpless

McCormick will be the chair of the Queen ElizabethHome and School Association for this upcoming year.The parent group meets once a month.

Other than having it removed before next summer, there's not a whole lot of other options. We just want it gone as soon as it can be removed.- Darby McCormick

"I assume once school gets started and we have our first meeting that it will be one of the hotter topics and there will be a lot of questions about what we can do."

McCormick said as far as she's aware of, there's nothing they can do.

"Other than having it removed before next summer, there's not a whole lot of other options. We just want it gone as soon as it can be removed and it's looking like that's not going to be until nextsummer without a big disruption to our school year," she said.

"Idon'twant, and Idon'tthink any other parent wants to see the school yeardisrupted."

McCormick says she's interested in what the school board has to say about policies and procedures to get through the school year with the asbestos.

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