Students and teachers regain complete access to ceramics and photo classrooms after toxic mold caused partial closure

Hilary DubinStaff WriterDue to the development of mold in the basement level of the Art and History buildings, parts of the ceramics and photo rooms were closed off to students and teachers, but they are now in use again.According to ceramics teacher Laurie Ann Gutierrez, the mold had been growing for quite some time. Because the classroom is on the basement level, it is susceptible to flooding. This excessive moisture allowed for the formation of mold.“I noticed I had a hard time breathing and was concerned for my students, so I contacted Ms. Baxter and she responded immediately,” Gutierrez said.The mold caused half of Gutierrez’s classroom to be closed off, forcing students to squeeze into half their usual work space and even spill outside for some of their work.“It made the classroom really cramped,” senior Hunter Conrad said, “but working outside was refreshing, especially when it was nice out.”Although the mold was  an inconvenience to Gutierrez’s class, for the most part, all of the students were still able to complete their work as usual. The photo room, on the other hand, faced more detrimental effects due to the mold.“It affected us big time,” long term substitute for Mr. Barnes, Sean Pawling said.The spread of the mold led to the closing of the dark room section of the photo room, which is essential for the film developing process."Photo II students were unable to finish works for upcoming shows and personal projects and we were relegated to digita," junior Photo II student Ivan Rios-Fetchko said, "The Photo I students were just starting to fully utilize the darkroom and then they were put in a kind of 'photo-limbo.'"According to Pawling, they made a makeshift darkroom in a different part of the classroom, but only three or four students could use it at a time. The rest of the students resorted to alternative methods of developing film using the scanner and computer called digita. These methods worked, but they were not as effective as the original dark room.“The lack of a dark room didn't really affect my learning, but it has affected my progress,” junior photo one student Tiana Kadkhoda said.Gutierrez said the mold removal started on Monday, Jan 9. The classrooms were fully reopened at the beginning of second semester. According to Dean of Students Catherine Baxter, mold specialists cleaned the air through a process called “airscrubbing,” which filters the air through a special machine.“It was fixed and that is important and exciting,” Gutierrez said.Currently, both the ceramics and photo rooms are able to continue their classes as usual.hdubin@thesamohi.com