Parents have complained about four temporary buildings at Korpuskóli elementary school in the Reykjavík suburb of Grafarvogur where mold and bacteria have been found and could prove dangerous to the children’s health.
“The children come home day after day with headache or sore throats,” Aevar Örn Aevarsson, chairman of the parents’ council of Korpuskóli, told Fréttabladid.
Biologist Sylgja Dögg Sigurjónsdóttir investigated the condition of the buildings for the parents’ council in June. Her report states that the older buildings are constantly damp and have a moldy smell. Samples showed that the levels of mold and bacteria were dangerously high.
“Parents have called and told us about their children’s illnesses,” Aevarsson said. “We knew about some cases but it seems to be more extensive than we realized.”
Gudrún Hjálmdís Hjálmarsdóttir, a mother of a 14-year-old boy who attends Korpuskóli, has contacted a lawyer because of this case. Her son has suffered from respiratory problems and chronic headache which she believes can be traced back to the moldy buildings.
Parents hold city authorities responsible for improving the situation permanently; they will not send their children into these four buildings again. City authorities have made earlier attempts to repair the buildings.
Yesterday, chairman of the educational council of Reykjavík City, Júlíus Vífill Ingvarsson, stopped repair work at Korpuskóli and is going to review comments from parents with his colleagues today.
