Going back to school could be a health hazard for children at one storm-battered Rockaway school.
Worried parents of students at Public School/Middle School 114, in Belle Harbor, hired an expert to test mold levels and air quality on Thursday at the school.
The school’s auditorium was deluged by five feet of water and sewage during Superstorm Sandy.
“I’m really torn about sending my sons back to PS/MS 114,” said Parent Teacher Association President Irene Dougherty. “I just want to make sure it’s 100% safe.”
Only about 250 of the school’s 800 students have returned, she said. It reopened on Nov. 27.
City officials disputed the attendance count and said that almost 90% of students had returned to the school by Friday.
The United Federation of Teachers tested the auditorium and found high moisture levels in the walls. This can lead to mold.
Activities were held in the auditorium for the first few days after the school was reopened but it has since been sealed off, Dougherty said.
She and other parents would like the city to gut the auditorium, which is what local homeowners have been advised to do to ensure that mold doesn’t grow.
“We just want the same safety standards in our own houses to happen in the school,” Dougherty said. “We don’t put a price on our children’s health.”
Ed Olmsted, an expert who tested the auditorium for the UFT, said the plaster walls were simply given a fresh coat of paint — locking moisture into the walls.
“I believe there is mold underneath the paint now,” he said. “There’s a health risk for people who go into the auditorium.”
The rest of the building, which didn’t flood, is safe, he said.
The city Department of Education agreed to place dehumidifiers in the auditorium to dry out the walls and remove wood surfaces in the stage area after mold was found there.
The city agreed to the work after parents pressured the agency at a Dec. 3 meeting to conduct additional tests in the building. The results were released Friday.
Helen Renda, 42, of Rockaway Park, said she sent her kids back to PS/MS 114 because she wanted things go back to normal.
“I hope I’m making the right decision,” she said. “My kids are very happy to be here with their teachers and their regular classrooms.”
But Liz Smith-Breslin, 46, of Belle Harbor, is still debating whether to send her son back. The kindergartner currently attends a Manhattan school temporarily.
“I don’t want to have any regrets that a couple months from now, a year from now or even a couple of years from now, my son has health issues,” she said.
ctrapasso@nydailynews.com
