A parliamentary inquiry in New South Wales over the presence of asbestos at a high school has heard that asbestos particles rained down on teachers while they ate their lunch.
The inquiry has so far heard from current teachers and parents of students at the school, who say they have been kept in the dark about the extent of asbestos at the school.
“The ceiling [in the staffroom] had rained down on us, and I made a complaint in 2018 because it was annoying,” Social Science teacher John Connell told the inquiry.
“I didn’t even think it could be asbestos, I believed them when they said it was all clear.”
An external risk management company conducted a safety survey in 2008 and a secondary or follow-up survey in 2014 and showed 76 instances of asbestos-containing material at the school.
The survey indicated that asbestos traces were found in each of the main buildings, including ceilings, floors, student learning spaces and storerooms.
Teachers at the school are adamant that they were not informed of the presence of asbestos.
“We didn’t know that,” PDHPE teacher Shane Stubbs told the inquiry. “It defies belief that this isn’t something we heard about until 2022.”
“We haven’t even been trained in how to report hazardous material or who to call if we’re worried about it in our school,” Mr Stubbs said.
The NSW Minister for Education, Sarah Mitchell, said in a statement that the presence of asbestos at the site, and the initial reporting process issues made for “very serious allegations that are the subject of an investigation by both the Department of Education’s Professional and Ethical Standards Unit and SafeWork NSW.”
Remediation work was undertaken throughout 2020, with the Department of Education noting further planned maintenance took place in the following years.
The committee is likely to present the findings of the inquiry to parliament this week.