A senior evacuated her Stowe Inn dorm this week due to an illness allegedly caused by black mold. The mold, she reported, has been growing in her bathroom since the beginning of the school year, despite her greatest efforts to remove it.
The senior—along with fellow Stowe Inn resident Kyrie Eiras-Saunders ’12—suffers from coughing, a stuffy nose, headaches, tiredness, and occasional dizziness and blurry vision, as well as general respiratory discomfort.
“I was just kind of sick on and off this semester, and I’ve caught just about every bug that’s gone around school,” said the senior, who was granted anonymity (see editor’s note at bottom). “I had to pack a bag [and move out] and I can’t sleep in my room at all. It’s bad.”
The senior, who has lived in Stowe for the past three years, explained that she found the mold growing in the cracks of her shower upon moving into her room, but didn’t expect the mold to have such a negative affect on her.
She initially scrubbed her bathroom with Lysol, but was unable to remove the fungus. It was not until she tried to scrape off the black mold, when she woke up with a terrible sore throat and a runny nose, that she realized that the mold could be responsible for her sickness.
“I immediately emailed my dean, and I also went straight to the Health Center,” said the senior. “They told me I was having a reaction to the toxic mold.”
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) states on its website that although mold does not always present a health risk indoors, some people are sensitive and susceptible to illness.
“These people may experience symptoms such as nasal stuffiness, eye irritation, wheezing, or skin irritation when exposed to molds,” the CDC website reports, and recommends consulting a physician about the proper procedure to handle mold-induced illnesses.
Eiras-Saunders, who is fighting a similar mold problem in her Stowe Inn residence, moved into her room this fall to find a collapsed bathroom ceiling, shattered ceiling tiles, and water all over the bathroom floor. Facilities was receptive to her maintenance request, repairing the damage the very next day, but mold was leftover.
“I keep getting sick, but I don’t know if it’s the mold or if it’s just me getting sick regularly,” said Eiras-Saunders. “Right before Fall Break was the worse, I had just cleaned my room and maybe it was just a coincidence, but my vision went blurry for a couple hours…Then I spent all of fall break with a fever in bed, just dizzy.”
While the senior decided to move out and spend the weekend in a friend’s room, Eiras-Saunders is remaining in her room for the time being, with the hope that Facilities will resolve the issue within the next couple of days.
But, the two Stowe Inn residents agree that the mold-infested bathrooms ought to be renovated—at least the showers replaced—if students are expected to live in the residencies in future years.
The Orient could not get comment from Facilities before press time.
“I’m just kind of angry,” the senior explained. “I feel like toxic mold should be removed from rooms before people are allowed to move in.”
Editor’s note: The senior requested anonymity but, due to a miscommunication, was initially named in the article. The article has been updated to anonymize her.