LIBERTY CENTER (WTOL) - Over the last few days, parents reached out to WTOL 11 with reports that there was an outbreak among students having seizures at Liberty Center High School.
But Principal Larry Black and Henry County Health Commissioner Mark Adams said there’s nothing in the school to worry about.
“Your children are safe,” Black said. “If you check my attendance you’ll see I’ve been here every day. If the building wasn’t safe, I wouldn’t be here either.”
Black has been at Liberty Center High School for four years and said safety is his top concern. However, he did acknowledge that four or five students have exhibited what appeared to be seizures in the last few weeks.
“We’ve had some episodes,” Black said. “We also were concerned because there seemed to be an uptick in medical emergencies in the building.”
He wasn’t the only one concerned.
One parent, whose identity is being kept private at her request, said she still isn’t convinced the situation is safe even after Black’s interview with WTOL 11. But Adams said the school building has been checked and it is safe.
“You have these devices that perform that testing that there’s not high carbon monoxide in the facility, that there’s no unapproved building materials that are in the building,” Adams said in a phone interview. “You know, you need to contact the parents and let them know that there are 1,100 children in that school and that there are no conditions that we have been able to come up with that would indicate in any way that there’s anything amiss.”
That parent also said she was unhappy with the school’s lack of communication with parents, but Black said there is a valid reason for that.
“You know, there’s not much we can tell because of the federal laws with medical information that has to be protected and also student information that has to be protected,” Black said. “We can’t really give very much information out.”
The school released a statement to parents on Friday on its Facebook and Twitter pages. You can find that statement below.