Circuit Judge Richard Wilson has scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case over whether Paden City High School should close for the upcoming school year for environmental concerns. (Google Maps screenshot)
A Wetzel County judge has set a preliminary hearing in the case over whether Paden City High School should close for the upcoming school year.
Circuit Judge Richard Wilson has scheduled the matter for 4 p.m. July 25 in the Wetzel County Courthouse.
Wilson ordered the school to reopen and that any prohibitions on the school’s student athletes and band members participating in their activities be stopped.
Last month, Wetzel County School Superintendent Cassandra Porter told school staff that the high school would be closed for the upcoming school year because of environmental concerns. The school site, built on ground with soil and groundwater plumes contaminated with tetrachloroethylene, a likely carcinogen used for dry cleaning fabrics, was placed on an Environmental Protection Agency priorities list in 2021.
Students and staff of the school would be relocated to New Martinsville School and Magnolia High School, the superintendent wrote.
The EPA, though, said there was “no imminent health risks” for students at the school, and that the agency did not recommend that the school close.
The state Department of Education said in a statement after the closure that it is “confident in Superintendent Porter’s authority and the provided reasoning behind the decision to temporarily close Paden City High School and relocate its students and staff.
“Looking beyond the EPA’s “acceptable” risk level, the reports indicate multiple environmental condition changes that could alter the current level of risk,” the agency said. “Given the unknowns of potential environmental changes and the heightened environmental sensitivity that students in their developmental years face, this course of action is reasonable and fully supported. These risks are unacceptable when there is a readily available solution to keep students and staff safe.”
In the ruling late last week, Wilson acknowledged that in order for Porter to legally close the school, there must have been conditions detrimental to the students’ health, safety or welfare and that, at the time of the “unauthorized and illegal” closure, there was no evidence of such conditions.
“If the illegal and unauthorized closure is permitted to continue, the fundamental rights of the PCHS students to be educated at their local high school will be harmed irreparably,” the order says. “Further, if the illegal and unauthorized closure is allowed to continue, the students will be harmed irreparably by being blocked from participating in their chosen sport, marching band, or other extra-curricular activity at their local high school in the town where they live.”
The judge noted that the plaintiffs who filed the petition asking for the school to be reopened have a high probability of winning at the full hearing. The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Teresa Toriseva and Joshua Miller.
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