EPA clears Johnson Junior High to reopen Tuesday after mercury contamination

Despite discovering mercury vapor more than 10 to 15 times above federally determined safe levels, the Environmental Protection Agency has cleared Johnson Junior High School to reopen Tuesday.

Students at the west valley campus, at 7701 Ducharme Ave. near Buffalo and Alta drives, have remained home since Wednesday, when the discovery of mercury prompted a campus lockdown and screening of nearly 1,500 people for contamination.

Classes will resume at 8:30 a.m., the regular start time, the Clark County School District said in a statement.

“The message to parents is that we’ve got to get students back into the routine of education,” Mike Barton, the district’s chief student achievement officer, said at a Monday news conference after at least a quarter-cup of mercury was found in the school nearly a week ago.

“The campus is safe,” he added. “It’s been checked and checked again and cleaned thoroughly.”

While the school was closed Monday, some parents, including Ching Vogl, 33 and her daughter, Fiona Vogl, 12, stopped by to pick up their belongings, which had been seized Wednesday then screened, cleaned and rescreened over the weekend. But only Fiona’s shoes were returned.

The girl’s clothes were still being tested, her mother was told, and her purse, lunchbox and backpack were all destroyed.

“The mercury levels were too high,” the mother said.

Fiona’s purse was the only one destroyed, her lunchbox was one of three destroyed and her backpack was one of about 30 destroyed, a district official told the family.

Fiona said her items may have had high levels of mercury because she saw some mercury in the school’s gym Wednesday morning— a group of boys had pointed out “a few drops” on the bleachers during her physical education class.

“It was silvery and shiny,” she said, adding that it was “really pretty.” But Fiona didn’t touch it, and one of the boys said he would throw it away, she said.

A few hours later, the school was on lockdown.

“She got out around 10:30 p.m.,” her mother said.

Because Fiona’s items showed such high levels, EPA officials came to the family’s home Monday to screen it for mercury, her mother said. After about 30 minutes, the family was given the all clear.

“Of course we’re concerned, but I believe (the school and the EPA) are doing the right thing,” said Jeff Vogl, Fiona’s father.

Steve Calanog, a federal on-scene coordinator with the EPA, said Monday that the agency visited and inspected at least 80 homes of Johnson students. One home was vacated and the family — two adults and two children — was asked to temporarily relocate.

As students return to campus Tuesday, contractors for the EPA will begin cleaning the home where higher levels of mercury were found. It is still unclear who brought the substance to campus, though school district police are investigating.

“EPA’s approach is to protect human health,” Calanog said. “There’s an ongoing police investigation, and we’re not in a position to speculate who’s responsible. Our job is to find the mercury in the homes and make sure these homes are safe.”

Calanog added that they believe with “some confidence” that the contamination is not as widespread as initially feared. The majority of the contamination was concentrated in the school’s gymnasium and the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms.

Barton said some portions of the gym floor were removed, but not yet replaced, as part of the cleanup.

Earlier Monday, spokesman Rusty Harris-Bishop said the EPA had not widened the search beyond the school, or the homes of students, to local stores or other buildings throughout the community in the west Las Vegas Valley.

“I don’t believe we would have any reason to do that,” he said.

Frank Rutkowski, spokesman for the Southern Nevada chapter of the American Red Cross, said the disaster relief team has communicated continuously with the displaced family and has worked to ensure that its needs, such as clothing and shelter, have been addressed.

Rutkowski said this is the first time the local Red Cross chapter has seen a mercury contamination displace a family.

The Metropolitan Police Department has not been involved in any criminal investigation as of yet, but department spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said that could change.

“I know there’s been some conversations,” she said.

Some reports from parents say that a teacher brought the mercury in for use in a science experiment. According to Barton, officials believe it was a student.

Barton added that the district doesn’t have chemistry labs in its middle schools, and that no mercury should be kept on campus.

“We have a department in the district that looks at those things when they do inventory of science equipment,” Barton said. “One of the jobs of that department is to make sure we don’t have outdated thermometers on campus.”

Las Vegas Review-Journal writers Rachel Crosby and Wesley Juhl contributed to this story. Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Follow @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.