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She's baaaaack...Betty Cox returns with law degree to fight toxic
mold in schools
By
Emily Peters
The Town Talk,
Alexandria, Louisiana
July 30, 2003
A school
secretary is suing the Rapides Parish School Board with the help of former
school superintendent Betty Cox.
Cox, now a Baton Rouge
lawyer, is representing Peggy Bergeron in her lawsuit that claims toxic mold
in her office at the Rapides
Motivational Center made her ill.
Cox served as Rapides Parish school superintendent from 1994 to 1998 before
she left the district with a $1.7 million settlement after legal strife with
School Board members.
Cox went on to study law at the Louisiana State University School of Law and
now works for the Walton J. Barnes, II, professional law firm in Baton
Rouge.
In her motion, Bergeron claims a moldy ceiling tile over her desk has caused
a variety of illnesses, including "severely aggravated gastritis,
excruciating epigastric and abdominal pain, persistent cough, severe
headaches, skin rash, lung infection, breathing difficulties, itching and
fatigue," according to the lawsuit.
Bergeron, who has worked for the school system since 1976, said district
maintenance staff replaced moldy ceiling tiles a few times in response to
her complaints, but the mold never was eliminated.
Bergeron sought Cox as her lawyer though the two had never interacted much
before.
"I just knew her all those years as my superintendent and I was impressed,"
Bergeron said. "I heard she finished law school, and I thought, who better?
She knows the ins and outs of this school system. She is very fair."
Cox could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Bergeron also filed for an injunction to keep the School Board from
tampering with her office before it can be tested for evidence of toxic
mold. The judge scheduled a court date for the injunction on Aug. 18 at 9:30
a.m.
Bergeron said she hired RTC, an indoor air quality testing company from
Baton Rouge, to evaluate the mold from her ceiling. She showed paperwork
that showed RTC identified the fungus as stachybotrys, a mold commonly found
to cause illness.
She said she never had allergy or sinus problems before she started working
at the Truancy Center last
year.
Cox's relationship with the School Board deteriorated shortly after she was
hired in 1994. She ordered an investigation into board members' use of a
school system telephone line for personal and long distance telephone calls.
The board suspended her but she was reinstated by federal court order eight
days later. She then sued most of the board members.
The legal wrangling continued until Jan. 3, 1998, when the board agreed to pay Cox $1.7 million in exchange for her
resignation.
The Truancy Center was
terminated in April's budget cuts, including Bergeron's secretarial
position. However, Bergeron has received no personal notification of the
changes, and she signed a contract earlier this summer to work somewhere in
the school system in the fall.
Two years ago, school district officials quarantined parts of Mary Goff
Elementary to clear the school of toxic mold. A less-dangerous mold also was
found at North
Bayou Rapides Elementary School last summer.
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