Castle Hill High School had positive asbestos test four years before taking action

Teachers made a horror discovery after demanding an investigation into dust falling from the ceiling – and now say students’ lives are at risk.

EXCLUSIVE

Questions have been raised as to whether thousands of students and teachers at NSW’s largest high school were potentially exposed to asbestos for years, even after a sample of the dust had come back positive for the deadly material.

News.com.au can reveal a major investigation is now under way into the circumstances surrounding the Castle Hill High School test result, which came a full four years before the NSW Department of Education announced asbestos had been discovered there in 2020.

Staff members say they were so concerned about white dust falling from the ceilings that they repeatedly begged the school to conduct tests, even going so far as to “sweep it up into a zip-lock bag” themselves and hand it to the school.

“People were sweeping up dust from that staffroom, the library and other staffrooms and taking it to the [school] asking for it to be tested for years,” one teacher told news.com.au.

“That sounds absurd and it is. People were just like, ‘When are they going to test this fricking dust? More of it fell on us today.’”

One sample, taken from the Human Society and its Environment (HSIE) staffroom in 2016, returned a positive test for both Chrysotile, white asbestos, and Amosite, brown asbestos – considered one of the most hazardous types – but staff were told the test had come back “all clear”.

Although the report refers to asbestos, it does not say whether the material posed an exposure risk.

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CHHS

Minutes of the CHHS WHS Committee on August 1, 2016.

The certificate of analysis from Wollongong-based lab Clearsafe Environmental Solutions was provided to the school on July 29, 2016.

Minutes from the school’s WHS Committee meeting dated August 1, 2016, read, “Ceiling in B5/HSIE staffroom – bits falling where new lights installed – samples sent for analysis. All clear in B block, still checking other areas in the school.”

The teacher claimed the use of “all clear” in the minutes “directly reference the test being negative”.

“Why, when the test came back positive, would [the school] say it came back negative?”

Four years later, the Education Department announced “previously unknown asbestos” had been found in the roof cavity of Castle Hill High School during a “proactive inspection program”, that remediation work had been completed and there was a “low or negligible risk of exposure to airborne hazardous material”.

“All work was completed in accordance with SafeWork NSW regulations and a clearance certificate was issued by an independent hygienist confirming students and staff can safely occupy the rooms,” the department said at the time.

Multiple teachers then complained to the Education Department, saying they had raised concerns years earlier.

In April this year, Castle Hill High School principal Georgie Fleming told staff in an email that the Education Department had “recently been made aware” of the certificate of analysis from 2016.

Ms Fleming was not with the school when the tests were conducted in 2016.

“From the information available to the department it is not clear exactly where within the staff room the sample was taken from or how it was taken,” she wrote.

“The certificate indicates that the sample comprised of Fibrous Cement Sheeting (FCS) material and other fibres. The laboratory analysis detected the presence of Chrysotile (white) and Amosite (brown) asbestos fibres. The certificate has been provided to SafeWork NSW and the Department’s Health, Safety and Staff Wellbeing Directorate.”

SafeWork NSW is now investigating exactly who knew what when, to determine whether the school breached asbestos management policies.

The Education Department’s Professional and Ethical Standards Directorate (PES) is also conducting an investigation.

News.com.au understands the bombshell 2016 document was only recovered on April 6 this year when PES investigators reconstructed staff email inboxes, after being tipped off to the existence of the test in interviews with several complainants.

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The 2016 test was arranged by a former general assistant, whose name appears next to the “all clear” comment in the WHS Committee minutes.

It is not suggested that he has engaged in any wrongdoing.

But requesting the school’s GA to arrange an asbestos test appears to have been a breach of the official policy, which instructs schools to refer any suspected cases to the Education Department’s Asset Management Unit.

“[The policy says] if staff report there’s falling dust, ring this number and we’ll send someone out,” a second teacher told news.com.au.

After the 2016 test, multiple staff members logged requests in the school’s internal issue tracking system demanding to see a copy of the results.

“Nobody was ever shown the test,” the first teacher said.

“People made requests to see the test, saying we still have dust falling on us. Those were all noted as seen, actioned, finished, but they did nothing.”

In an entry dated August 16, 2018, one woman wrote, “I would like to see the report regarding the testing of the particles falling from the ceiling. I haven’t seen the report. The particles continue to fall over [the] last four years and I continue to breathe them in. There are a number of staffrooms with this complaint. I am sitting at my desk breathing in these fine particles every day.”

The issue was marked as “closed” by the school’s WHS officer on December 6, 2018.

On November 16, 2018, a different woman logged a report about pieces of vermiculite ceiling in the library falling down and warned “staff and students” were at risk.

“Pieces could fall on their heads and dust in their eyes,” she wrote. “What is in the vermiculite? Does it contain asbestos?”

That entry was also marked “closed” several months later without any apparent response.

Earlier this month, a young Victorian woman won a payout from the state government after developing terminal cancer as a result of inhaling deadly asbestos dust while she was a pupil at Footscray North Primary School in the early 2000s.

Jasmine Thomas, 27, filed a civil claim for $2.1 million after doctors discovered multiple tumours while the mum-to-be was undergoing her first ultrasound.

The State of Victoria settled for an undisclosed sum, the Herald Sun reported.

The second Castle Hill teacher said, “At some point everyone in school has classes in there, you can’t avoid it. They don’t know how much of the crap fell down [if any].”

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell. Picture: Christian Gilles/NCA NewsWire

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell confirmed the “serious allegations” were under investigation.

“I was made aware last month of allegations regarding asbestos at Castle Hill High School,” she said in a statement to news.com.au.

“These are serious allegations that are the subject of investigations by both the Department of Education’s Professional and Ethical Standards unit and SafeWork NSW.”

An Education Department spokeswoman said, “Remediation work at the school has been completed, with air monitoring carried out in 2020 and 2021. The department is confident there are no current asbestos issues at the school.”

Castle Hill MP Ray Williams issued a public statement on Tuesday.

“Last Thursday afternoon I met with teachers and parents of Castle Hill High School,” he said.

“During this meeting I was provided with information including a positive test for asbestos which was undertaken at Castle Hill High School in 2016. Following this 2016 asbestos test at Castle Hill High School, the school community was advised it was [all clear] for asbestos, when in fact it was positive.”

While the test confirmed traces of asbestos in the building, it did not confirm whether there was an exposure risk.

“The teachers and parents believe the health of students, teachers and staff of Castle Hill High School has been severely compromised following years of exposure to asbestos,” Mr Williams continued.

“The teachers and parents of CHHS have made numerous complaints regarding asbestos to the Department of Education over several years which still remain unanswered. As the Member for Castle Hill, I have a responsibility to ensure the safety of my community.”

A SafeWork NSW spokeswoman said inspectors were invited to Castle Hill High School in June 2020, after asbestos was identified.

“The impacted blocks were isolated from staff and students with encapsulation works completed in July 2020,” she said.

“SafeWork have visited the school on numerous occasions since this incident and are confident there are no current asbestos issues at the school. SafeWork NSW is actively investigating the matter and further comment is not available at this time.”