posted 05-24-2002 10:45 AM            

Kindergartner's death still mystery
By ELAINE PORTERFIELD, MIKE LEWIS AND D. PARVAZ
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS

May. 24 - GIG HARBOR -- The sudden death of a kindergartner who attended an elementary school beleaguered by health complaints remains a mystery, raising new concerns among parents.

The 6-year-old girl, Madison Berggren, died Wednesday morning after she was rushed to the hospital when she stopped breathing.
"She was a little piece of sunshine," remembered Kathy Weymiller, the principal of Artondale Elementary School.
"She could light up the room when she smiled. She had a sparkle to her."

In a message sent home to parents, school officials said there was no reason to believe Madison's death was related to the air-quality problems that prompted the school to close for two months earlier this year.
She was not among the children and staff who had previously reported health problems, and the annex in which she attended classes hasn't shown to be affected by environmental issues that forced the school to close its main building for the rest of the school year.
An autopsy yesterday failed to establish a conclusive cause of Madison's death, and further tests could take several weeks.
Todd Kelley, spokesman for Mary Bridge Children's Hospital and Health Center in Tacoma where Madison died, said her twin sister died soon after birth from a congenital heart defect.
The autopsy, though, did not reveal if Madison's death could have been caused by the same type of condition. Nor would officials speculate on whether environmental health problems at her school could have contributed to her death in any way.
They did say they do not believe her death points to any public health threat.

Parent Patti Vivian, left, walks with Artondale Elementary second-graders Maddie Scheutzew, Hayley Vivian and Hailey Benesch, all 8, and fourth-grader Christian Vivian, 9, after picking them up after school. Grant M. Haller / Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Click for larger photo

As a precaution, however, all half-day kindergarten and preschool classes were canceled until Tuesday.
"I want to know the cause of death," said Jim Coolican, superintendent of the Peninsula School District. "Until I can guarantee the safety of the building, we will not have school in that building."
In the meantime, some parents worry about having their children return to the school in the fall.
Dorothy Rawls is among them.
She has two children in the school and another who will be entering kindergarten next year.
Her daughter, Annika, a fourth-grader, twice broke out in a rash. And Hayden, a third-grader, has had asthma attacks.
Now, she's worried about her 4-year-old son, Alex.
"I'm quite worried about where he is going to go to school," Rawls said. "Is he going to be bused a long way? Or is this school safe?"
Then, she added: "I'm glad I'm not a superintendent."

Idyllic setting

Artondale Elementary School is located in an idyllic section of the Gig Harbor Peninsula.
It's the place where fingers of salt water lick at wooded hillsides.
The grange is just around the corner, and new craftsman-style houses on secluded cul de sacs jostle old apple orchards in the area.
Madison lived in such a house, just a few blocks from a small farm offering hay for sale.
Her parents were not home yesterday, and one neighbor said the couple asked that those living on the quiet street not speak to the media.
The problems at Artondale Elementary School began during the 2000-2001 school year, when staff and students began complaining about unexplained rashes, headaches, breathing difficulties, sore throats, fatigue and other prob- lems.
In January, the Peninsula Education Association, which represents teachers in the district, filed a grievance over air-quality problems at the school.
A month later, the school closed, and the district spent $400,000 to clean the school's ventilation system, tear out old carpets and replace some ceiling tiles.
Two independent firms tested the school in April and found the building safe after the decontamination process. Students and staff soon returned.
But complaints persisted, and earlier this month, the Peninsula School Board decided to close the school for the rest of the year after parents and staff complained that the school is still making teachers and students sick.
Most of Artondale's 470 students were transferred to makeshift classrooms at other schools, but the half-day kindergarten and preschool classes remained on the campus in a portable building.
If that building can't be reopened, the 40 children may have to be bused to other schools until the end of the school year.
Coolican said he hopes the entire school can be reopened by September.
At a school board meeting last night, though, some wondered whether that was possible.
"I don't see how we can open in September," said Diane Yelish, the school's nurse. "We don't know what we're dealing with in that building."
She says nearly all the teachers in the school are physically ill.
Some are becoming more forgetful, while others seem to get dizzy simply by walking past certain objects in the school.
Mike Gordon, a parent with a sick child, asked the board to make Madison's symptoms public so that parents can see whether their children have the same symptoms.
Within a month, the school plans to hire a consultant to try to identify the problem and determine if there are similar problems at other schools in the district, the board decided last night.
"I think that's more important than anything you can do right now," Gordon said.

Researcher skeptical

posted 05-24-2002 10:49 AM            

GIG HARBOR, Wash. - An autopsy that was performed Thursday on a Gig Harbor kindergartner, who died suddenly of mysterious causes, was ruled inconclusive pending further study, said the Pierce County medical examiner's office.

“Since we have no understanding of the cause of the child’s death, no one can provide any information to parents other than if they have a child who has an illness, and they have concerns, they should seek care from their physician,” said Vic Harris of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

posted 05-24-2002 11:03 AM            

"She says nearly all the teachers in the school are physically ill.
Some are becoming more forgetful, while others seem to get dizzy simply by walking past certain objects in the school."

what objects might those be?

posted 05-24-2002 01:16 PM            

I don't know if anyone noticed, but take a look at this link. There is a picture of a parent with a Boeing 757 model over her head. The caption reads "Parent Patti Vivian, left, walks with Artondale Elementary second-graders Maddie Scheutzew, Hayley Vivian and Hailey Benesch, all 8, and fourth-grader Christian Vivian, 9, after picking them up after school."

Why would they have a weird shot like that to match the picture and not even show the kids? Was the photographer trying to tell us something, like chemtrails might be involved? http://www.msnbc.com/local/pisea/71780.asp

posted 05-24-2002 03:35 PM            

The picture should've gone with another story about Boeing in the same issue of the P-I. the picture was probably mis-placed when they built the Internet Version of that day's P-I.

posted 05-24-2002 07:45 PM            

Keep us posted on what you find out and we'll see what we can do. I've emailed local television with photo's before and never even got a response.

posted 05-24-2002 07:51 PM            

what objects might those be?

Yeah... that's the same question I had? ... maybe they're getting the wrong people in there doing the investigating... they need to take a look at those objects and test them for whatever anomalies they can find.

Did you see the massive sundog over Seattle today complete with trails? I called every newspaper and news station I could think of. The reply was,"That's normal ma'am."

We had a really impressive display of sun dogs located on the huge halo around the sun the other day. The sun dogs were located at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions relative to the sun. Nothing about it looked normal to me.. it looked down right weird and ominous.

Today we've got the total white out haze now since the planes have been spraying diligently all day long. I don't know about anyone else.. but lately when I look at objects basking in the sun there's a strange quality to the sunlight anymore. Most objects appear to be lit too brightly... and certain colors have an increased intensity.

I heard a really interesting lady talking on Art Bell last night. She mentioned that the sun is indeed going thru some changes in it's geomagnetics which in turn is affecting the earth's magnetics. ...
I think perhaps it's time that I pay the money to be able to listen to Mr. Bell on- line during the hours when I'm more awake, rather than stay up till 1 o'clock in the morning. I really should tape record that particular show too.

posted 05-24-2002 08:11 PM            

Yeah... I bet you're right.... I wished I'd taken a picture of those sun dogs I saw the other day.. they were out of this world.

posted 05-25-2002 12:09 AM            

Ahhh, somebody out there is trying to spoil the party! Well, they are going to have to be smarter than that. I have not been sending any emails to list-members today. If the email says nirvana and does not originate from "nirvanafloat@hotmail.com", then hit the delete key. And that means checking for spoofing too; look at the return path in the email header if you suspect a virus. In Outlook you can use file..properties in outlook express, or view..options in outlook.
That Klez/W32 virus is going around quite a bit and uses spoofing.

That's wild about all the calls to King5. Today was a doozie for chemtrails. I suppose I do hold out some hope that our government is doing this stuff for our own good. It would be good if they clued us in.

posted 05-25-2002 02:24 PM            

By Associated Press, 5/23/2002 18:50

GIG HARBOR, Wash. (AP) A building used by preschoolers and kindergartners at an elementary school was closed Thursday as investigators tried to determine whether there was any connection between the death of a 6-year-old girl and health complaints at the school.

Madison Berggren, a kindergartner at Artondale Elementary School, was hospitalized Wednesday morning when her parents discovered she wasn't breathing. She later died of unexplained causes, said Todd Kelley, spokesman for Mary Bridge Children's Hospital and Health Center in Tacoma.

''To say this is related to Artondale at this point is incredibly speculative,'' Kelley said, but he called the girl's death ''incredibly troubling.''

An autopsy found no public health threat. Ed Duke, chief investigator for the medical examiner, said further tests will be needed to determine what caused her death.

The girl had a twin sister with a congenital heart defect who died soon after birth, but it was unclear if Madison's death could have been caused by the same type of condition, Duke said.

In a message to parents, school officials said they had no reason to believe Madison's death was related to environmental problems that prompted the school to shut down for a two-month cleanup earlier this year.

As a precaution, though, all half-day kindergarten and preschool classes were canceled until Tuesday, following the Memorial Day holiday.

Madison was a student in a half-day morning kindergarten class that met in the basement until Monday, when it was closed again after students and staff members complained of problems including headaches, itchy eyes, breathing troubles, numbness and tingling.

Most of Artondale's 470 students were transferred to other schools, but the half-day kindergarten and preschool classes remained in a portable building.

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posted 06-01-2002 03:38 PM            

It is interesting that even after the $400,000 cleanup of the school that the complaints from students and teachers did not stop, and that people were still experiencing problems. I think it can only point to external sources, airborne in nature. Talking with some of the PA Health Dept people in Bucks County, they never found any antibodies, or any evidence of bacteria or viruses in blood tests.

posted 06-01-2002 05:18 PM            

We have a thread with information concerning Barium Stearate and Aluminum Oxide taken right from their MSDS sheets.

Nasty health effects of Barium Stearate - rash, respiratory, etc. http://www.chemtrailcentral.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001087.html

And I and a few others have been keeping track of all the rash cases as well as the increase of health problems in children in general on this thread.