Gas leak at Maui Prep prompts concerns from parents

Beginning in January, Amy Oppedisano says her fourth grade son couldn’t shake chronic nausea and headaches. Multiple doctors appointments and tests weren’t getting him closer to a diagnosis and he was racking up absences at Maui Preparatory Academy in Lahaina.

“There would be days where he would just lay in his bed next to a trash can,” said Oppedisano.

His father, Derek Peterson, said they explored numerous medical possibilities, including whether it was a psychological response, maybe to being bullied at school or just not wanting to go. But nothing fit.

“He’s a golden retriever in terms of attitude,” said Peterson. “He’s like the happiest kid in the world and really has a history of not getting sick often. So it was a really, really strange anomaly for us.”

By March, Oppedisano began suspecting that their son’s classroom was making him sick, after talking to other parents who said their kids were having similar symptoms. She also recalled a foul smell in the classroom during a Feb. 28 meeting.

“The class smelled horrific,” she said.

On March 10, within a couple of days of Oppedi­sano’s inquiry to her son’s teacher, the head of Maui Preparatory Academy, Miguel Solis, sent out an email to fourth grade parents alerting them that a “tiny” gas leak was found on one of the oven regulators in the kitchen that is adjacent to the classroom. He said there were also concerns about a gas smell in December but that the supplier, AmeriGas, had inspected and found no leak.

Solis told parents he had installed carbon monoxide detectors in both the classroom and the kitchen, which hadn’t detected any carbon monoxide, and the school would be undertaking a thorough air quality inspection during spring break.

But parents say concerns over the gas leak were just beginning at the pricey private school located on a bluff, with stunning views of the ocean and West Maui Mountains. A state health inspector found that the kitchen wasn’t properly ventilated, which could have resulted in carbon monoxide building up in the attic above the fourth grade classroom.

In addition to the health effects, some parents say they fear the gas leak could have led to an explosion, and they feel as though the school didn’t take the situation seriously enough.

“The real scary part for me was, imagine if we didn’t push,” said Peterson.

Parents say about 10 students, or two-thirds of the class, felt sick in recent months with headaches, nausea, fatigue and irritability, which according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are symptoms associated with carbon monoxide poisoning.

The state Department of Health has launched an investigation after being notified by “multiple sources” of the situation, according to Maui District Health officer Dr. Lorrin Pang.

Parents told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the situation has proved divisive among parents. While some are angry and say the school mishandled the situation from the beginning, not even thinking to open the windows due to the smell, others think it has been blown out proportion.

Half a dozen parents asked that their names not be used because the issue had become so contentious and they didn’t want their kids to be affected.

Solis said he doesn’t know whether the smell in the classroom, which he said had been intermittent, was due to gas. He said it could have been sewer lines or grease traps in the kitchen, which were recently cleaned. He said he had the gas tank removed and shut down the kitchen, which was being leased to a woman for baking banana bread. The lease had provided the school with an extra revenue stream but upset some parents who said they had no idea a commercial kitchen was operating beside their child’s classroom.

Solis said that while some parents have been upset, others have told him it’s a “nonissue.”

Solis said that his administration has taken the situation seriously from the beginning.

“In a school, things break down all the time and you fix them. Pipes break, you fix them. Windows break, you fix them. Cleaning, you have to stay constantly on top of that,” he said. “Nothing was minimized. Absolutely not.”

Parents say their kids’ symptoms resolved after the school began opening the windows, removed the gas tank and stopped leasing the kitchen out for the banana bread business. While some said they feel sure that carbon monoxide buildup in the classroom was causing their kids’ symptoms, others said they don’t know.

But “something in that room made the kids sick,” said one mother, who asked that her name not be used.

Oppedisano and Peterson said they haven’t sent their son back to the school since early March and his health has improved markedly. “It’s a night-and-day difference,” said Peterson.

While he said they can’t be sure it was carbon monoxide poisoning, Peterson said that’s the “low-hanging fruit” — meaning the obvious explanation.