Key findings of the panel tasked with getting to the bottom of CedarBridge Academy’s mould crisis:

The panel spoke to 14 students with respiratory problems and other allergies and concluded that they were “very probably” caused by exposure to mould. One mother told how her son almost died from respiratory failure.

*Forty-two teachers were interviewed plus support staff providing “enough medical evidence” to warrant a study of factors affecting the health of those using the school. One pregnant teacher quit her job due to health concerns about mould.

*Senior school management “seemed to deny over a long period” the mould problem and some teachers and parents were scared to speak out for fear of repercussions.

*Substitute teachers were sent to work in “suspect” classrooms and principal Kalmar Richards was alleged by many teachers to have moved her daughter’s class from one such room but allowed other students and teachers to work in there.

*Complaints of “suspect air” were first reported in 2000 by student services staff to the Devonshire environmental health officer. Photographs taken in March 2002 by a former teacher show “dense mold colonies growing profusely” on ceiling tiles.

*Teachers became so concerned about their health last October that they threatened to strike - leading to the school being closed two days later for a $4 million clean-up.

*A report produced by US specialists last July on the mould problem was viewed with scepticism by the Ministry of Education and the methods used in its compilation have since been queried by other experts.

*The construction of CedarBridge 13 years ago was botched leading to the wrong type of roof and walls being installed. No proper maintenance programme for the building was put in place then or has ever been followed since.

*Government should have spent $25 million over the past ten years looking after the building but failed to properly budget leading to a “cumulative state of disrepair”.

*The school’s board of governors was not consulted on the mould crisis and “remained silent and out of the way” as it progressed. Mrs. Richards and some deputy principals claimed an overload of academic administration work left them unable to give time to the “service and support functions” of CedarBridge.