While school students from across the state settle back into classrooms for the new year, the return of students and staff at a high school in Broken Hill has been thrown into chaos. A serious outbreak of mould at the school has forced hundreds to relocate. The education department is scrambling to respond to the problem which could end up requiring demolition.
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00:00 Locked gates and fences surround a silent school yard.
00:06 Williama High School is indefinitely empty after toxic mould was discovered.
00:11 According to the Department of Education, the outbreak was found on January 9 and has spread rapidly since.
00:18 Carpet cleaning at the school, combined with heat and humidity, is now believed to have caused the problem.
00:24 Some parts of the campus might even need to be demolished.
00:28 The mould situation at Williama is extremely dangerous.
00:32 Teagan Olds has two children enrolled at the school and is worried.
00:36 How long has it been there for? Is it a safety concern for all the kids that have previously been there?
00:43 Her daughter is doing her HSC this year.
00:46 I do want her to do really well. I don't want this to interfere with any of that.
00:50 But I think it's going to be a little bit of an impact.
00:53 I can understand their concern about that. I'd be concerned about it too if I had a child at that school and I was a parent of that school community.
01:00 Broken Hill councillor Daria Turley says there are still plenty of unanswered questions.
01:06 You know, how long has the mould been there? How extensive is it? What part of the buildings is it in?
01:10 And then what would be the impact of the health of our students and our staff?
01:16 The Department of Education says there's no evidence mould was present before the school holidays.
01:22 Daria Turley would like images of the mould released publicly.
01:26 Circulating that information will help stop a lot of rumours going around our community.
01:31 Williama students will begin returning to the classroom tomorrow and will be split between three other schools across the city.
01:38 Senior students will be sent here to Broken Hill High where demountables are expected to be set up by the beginning of term two.
01:45 In the meantime, there's no avoiding the disruption.
01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]