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American Morning
Pennsylvania Community Wants Answers in Series of Student Deaths
Aired May 21, 2002 - 07:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: A small community in Pennsylvania is desperately searching for answers as to why six children from one school district have died since December. Authorities are saying the deaths are unrelated, but nervous parents remain unconvinced, and they wonder whether there is something deadly at their children's schools.
Last night, the parents confronted the school board over this issue, and CNN's Jeanne Meserve has been following this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I want to know before I go home tonight is that it's OK for me to send my kid to East Pennsboro.
GERRY BROOKS, EAST PENNSBORO SCHOOL BOARD: There is no way that we will be sending our daughter to school if we didn't believe it was OK.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anger and fear are not the usual stuff of school board meetings, but in the East Pennsboro School District, nothing is usual these days.
Six students have died in five months in a school district with only 2,800 students, of a lung disorder, cancer, heart problems, a brain aneurysm. The cause of one death has yet to be determined.
GRAHAM HETRICK, DAUPHIN COUNTY CORONER: It's true that there are six deaths in this school system. It is not true that the deaths are related, and there is no scientific evidence at this point that they are related in any to the environment, either at their homes or in the school.
MESERVE: But Allyson Ferguson (ph) complains of chest pains, splitting headaches, nausea. Her parents and the parents of other sick youngsters want to know if there is something connecting the illnesses to one another or to the deaths.
(on camera): What's your fear here?
BETH MOYER, MIDDLE SCHOOL PARENT: Who is next.
MESERVE: And you are afraid it could be your daughter?
MOYER: Oh, yes.
MESERVE (voice-over): A January report showed elevated levels of mold in some parts of the high school. School officials say the problem has been cleared up in the band room and elsewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's totally clear, and it has been retested again, along with ten other areas of the building, and they all came back fine.
MESERVE: Air and water samples have also been tested for chemical contaminants.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It doesn't appear to be anything environmental.
MESERVE: Monday night, the school board hired a private firm to further investigate possible environmental factors in the deaths and illnesses. A final report is expected in two months.
In the meantime, there are emotional factors to consider.
ZACH SWEGER, THIRD GRADE STUDENT: It makes me feel kind of worried like some of my friends are going to die. And I am just hoping that's not going to happen.
MESERVE: And everybody else in this small community is hoping the very same thing.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Enola, Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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