Government knew about the potentially harmful environment at CedarBridge Academy as far back as March 2005 but failed to act, according to written proof obtained by .

A bundle of correspondence between a former CedarBridge teacher debilitated due to her mouldy classroom and a number of Government departments has been passed to this newspaper.

And the shocking content of the letters shows that Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann knew about the teacher?s illness more than 18 months ago.

In a confidential note dated March 30, 2005 to the secretary of the Public Service Commission ? which is responsible for civil servants ? he wrote that the Staff Medical Board had noted that the teacher ?suffers from allergies and that her symptoms appear to be aggravated by her school environment?.

The bundle of correspondence also reveals that the teacher first wrote to the Ministry of Education about her symptoms in October 2004; that she asked the Government?s Occupational Safety and Health Office to investigate conditions at the school in September 2005 and that she begged Chief Education Officer Dr. Joseph Christopher to make CedarBridge safe in April this year.

The Island?s largest public school ? which has 850-plus students and more than 100 staff ? was shut down by Education Minister Randy Horton on November 1 due to environmental health concerns.

A clean-up operation to get rid of mould in 20 classrooms is now under way. The Minister has refused to say how long Government has been aware of the mould problem but has promised an independent inquiry. A Government spokesman said last night that Mr. Horton would not comment until the investigation was concluded.

At a press conference earlier this month, Mr. Horton branded as ?unfair? a question to Dr. Cann about whether he had ever discussed health concerns at the school with former Education Ministers. The CedarBridge teacher made sick by the environment ? whom is not naming ? first listed her symptoms in a letter to the Ministry of Education dated October 5, 2004.

She was applying for medical retirement and wrote: ?I have been having severe headaches, swelling in my hands, face and lower part of my legs and feet, my joints hurt, nausea and I sometimes have problems with my eyes. ?I have not been able to function at 100 percent as a teacher, wife and mother. Sometimes I feel like my body is in trauma.?

She had just been sent home from school after becoming disorientated in class and was told by her doctor not to return to the building. She has been off work ever since.

Dr. Cann?s memo to the Public Service Commission the following March said that she might be able to work at another location if her symptoms improved but that otherwise she should be retired early on medical grounds.

On June 17, 2005, the teacher wrote to Dr. Christopher about the mould. Her letter stated: ?As you know, I have been out of teaching for the majority of this school year due to my poor health caused by the mouldy environment at CedarBridge Academy.?

On September 20, 2005, the teacher completed an eight-page witness statement for the Ministry of Health?s Occupational Safety and Health Office (OSHO).

In it, she recalled that she started to feel poorly around March 2003 and passed out after noticing a ?peculiar odour? in her classroom.

She was taken to hospital by ambulance where she remained for a week, having lost all feeling on her right side.

?The doctor told me that it was not a stroke,? she said. Her statement claimed that five other teachers also complained of illness around the same time.

The teacher wrote that her chiropractor eventually began to question whether she worked in a sick building.

?She encouraged me to look for leaks and mould. I did and I found that when it rained my room would leak. Mould formed on the ceiling tiles and these were changed, but still mould was in the roof.?

Her statement said that her doctor spoke to CedarBridge?s facilities manager, Ross Smith, about the mould.

?He told her that there was mould but not a significant amount,? wrote the teacher.

She added that she had been debilitated by her illness. ?I want the OSHO to investigate and identify health and safety conditions at CedarBridge Academy. To my knowledge, students have been affected as well as faculty.?

On April 12, 2006, the teacher again wrote to Dr. Christopher asking that the school environment be checked.

?I have had to have surgery and I have lost my quality of life,? she wrote. ?I do not want this to happen to anyone else the way it has happened to me.

?I have seen and know that there are teachers at CedarBridge Academy who are being treated for asthma, allergies and are having sinus problems and their health is worsening as a result of the environment at this school.

?Students are also getting sick. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE NOW TO ERADICATE THESE CONDITIONS.?

Dr. Christopher noted her comments about the school environment in a reply on April 21 and said he would forward his letter to CedarBridge principal Kalmar Richards and Dr. Cann.

A lawyer acting for another sick teacher has written to the Ministry of Education about the correspondence.

The letter from Paul Harshaw, seen by this newspaper, accuses the Government of having ?credible evidence of excessive mould? at CedarBridge but failing to do anything about it.