Shocked students last night spoke about their health concerns in the wake of the CedarBridge closure.

Several were at the school last night for an unrelated meeting with teachers. And they were totally unaware of the closure until told the news by The Royal Gazette.<$>

Most backed the Government shutdown.

But some teenagers asked how a relatively new school, built in the last ten years, could be caught up in a contamination scare.

With the classrooms at CedarBridge set to close for two weeks, others were worried about missing important work and valuable lesson time.

Brice Armstrong, 18, said: “I feel like it shouldn’t have happened because CedarBridge is a brand new school and they should have detected this a long time ago before it escalated to a teacher having to be sick.

“If a teacher got sick anybody can. I am concerned for my health.”

Shacoi Daniels, 17, welcomed the closure because safety of students was paramount and added: “When it reopens I hope all students and teachers will be healthy.

“I hope we are able to make up the time we lost due to this. I will most definitely have my health checked out.”

Sophia Thata, 17, also backed the closure. She said: “I know there was one teacher who got sick. I am glad that they are doing this.”

Alana Furbert, 17, was another pupil who said she would be going for a health check.

“I think it is a good idea to close the school, “she added. “We need to make sure that everyone is healthy. I am concerned though, that we are losing school time.”

Teral Wilson, 17, said that the north side of the school was affected and added that the shutdown did not come as a surprise.

And George Morris, also 17, said: “This school is not that old. How could this happen? I am concerned for my health and the health of my fellow classmates. I think we should all go to our doctors and get checked out.”

Meanwhile, former student government president Mario Swainson said the first he heard about the gates swinging shut was on last night’s news.

Two classrooms, a music room and a computer room, were closed when the new term started last month, he said. Some teachers said this was because of mould.

“We know nothing about this. I expected to go to school tomorrow but I would rather my safety came first. I’m glad the Minister took this stand.”

Mario said he knew of one teacher who was off sick with an illness linked to the closure, but that he was not aware of any pupils getting sick due to a mould-related problem.

“It’s possible that some may have been. A lot of kids go home for all different reasons. You can’t really say who’s going home because of mould. It could be something else.”

Mario added: “I’m glad they’ve taken action now and it’s at the beginning of the year so we don’t miss too much work. I’m glad it’s not in exam time.”

However, he said that he was still worried about missed work. “Are we going to have to make it up or are they going to drop part of the curriculum?”