GEORGETOWN, Ky. (WTVQ) — “Six months in a dorm room with mold constantly growing everywhere.”
Brittney Winn’s daughter says was living as a Residence Hall Coordinator at Georgetown College before they had her switch rooms due to dangerous mold.
Winn says her daughter is not the only student dealing with this problem.
“I’ve had multiple parents reach out to me after I made my post on Facebook that have also complained of mold growing in the dorms. They’ve reached out to RAs, RHCs, the advisors, everybody that they know and still nothing is being done for their rooms as well,” she said.
The photos Winn posted to Facebook show mold growing on her daughter’s walls as well as her personal belongings.
She says it has caused negative effects on her daughter’s health.
“She’s been fighting upper respiratory infection, she’s been fighting migraines all the sudden from where she’s been so sick from the spores. She’s been really fatigued recently, and she doesn’t understand why, but she’s gotta go get tested for mold poisoning at this point because it’s just so bad,” Winn added.
Parents were not the only people to respond to Winn’s Facebook post from Aug. 16.
Georgetown College’s official Facebook page also commented saying the following:
“The health and safety of our students is our top priority. The vice president for operations and vice president for student life and the facility director are all working on this situation and have been in active contact with the student. All the options to resolve the issue are being worked through currently.”
“When they initially commented I knew it was they were trying to save face and try to say that they’re doing stuff when they’re really not,” Winn told us.
Winn says the school has been in contact with her daughter; they promised her they would start working to get the room clean as well as giving her industrial garbage bags to put her moldy belongings away for cleaning, but…
“They never even brought her the industrial garbage bags to clean her room, never brought her any gloves, no mask, no nothing and the room still has not even been looked at or reviewed or nothing from the school.”
Winn tells us she has had multiple lawyers reach out and is not hesitant to file a lawsuit.
“I don’t want it to go that far, I really don’t, but if it comes down to it I’ll definitely reach out to a lawyer to get the situation resolved because it’s not just me it’s other parents and children as well that are living in these conditions,” she said.
We reached out to the college and they provided us with the following statement:
“At the beginning of the fall semester, we responded to the report of mold in a student’s room. We moved the student into another room in the same residence hall. All affected items were left behind to prevent the mold from spreading. Our team has been working with the student to replace these items. The student is. Residence hall coordinator and therefore has access to the room.
We are sorry the student had this experience. We are committed to providing all students with the Georgetown College experience, which includes a learning and living environment that allows them to focus fully on their studies. Our maintenance team has been working to determine the cause of the mold in the student’s former room and is working to eradicate it, which is part of a larger, multi-phase plan to update the HVAC systems in our oldest buildings.”
“I know on that comment she said they’re working on getting the HVAC systems updated but at this point, is it really the HVAC systems creating all this mold and if it is then why are you having students and endangering their lives by putting them in a room infested with mold?” Winn said.
Winn added this has been a problem even before her daughter attended the school, and she hopes it’s resolved soon.