The Lee County School Board and Superintendent John Sanders are the targets of two lawsuits filed Thursday because of air-quality problems in some schools. In one, three teachers accuse school officials of failing to fix the problems. In the other, a former maintenance supervisor said he was fired when he spoke out about the problems for old and new schools. Lorenzo McAfee accuses the board and Sanders of violating his civil rights and Florida’s Whistle-blower’s Act.

Lee County school district officials are not commenting on the suits because they have not received a copy. Board member Robert Chilmonik said he learned of the suits from an e-mail sent by schools spokesman John Dattola, but he declined to comment. Board Vice Chairwoman Elinor Scricca had not seen the lawsuit, but she said she was committed to fixing the problems. “We’re going to have to address the problems we have inherited due to the inaction of the former board,” she said.

In the first suit, three San Carlos Park Elementary School teachers filed a class action suit on behalf of all employees affected by school air-quality problems, such as mold and high levels of carbon dioxide. The number of employees affected could be in the hundreds or thousands, according to the suit. Gail Gerberich, Laura Penn and Teresa Davis accuse Sanders and the board of failing to inform employees about the health risks. Sanders and the board also are accused of not correcting the problems properly. They are demanding that district officials admit to the presence of toxins. Clean the mess up in compliance with industry standards. Monitor people who are ill because of the problems.  Post warnings in problematic buildings and write a plan on taking care of the problem.

“There’s no written policy for mold to have the overall maintenance problem corrected,” said Patrick Geraghty, the teachers’ lawyer. “It’s obviously a matter of severe public importance.”

Davis declined to comment. Gerberich and Penn could not be reached for comment. Geraghty also represents McAfee, a former school district maintenance supervisor who had handled air-quality problems. According to his suit, McAfee said after he gave his superiors a presentation on the problems in June 2001, he was silenced and when he continued to speak out his contract was not renewed. He estimated a cost of $18.5 million just to fix the problem at 11 schools. “They didn’t want to hear the cost,” Geraghty said.

McAfee could not be reached for comment, but the suit describes the problems this way:

“In effect, the school board was maintaining and creating new ‘mold factories’ in which there was no proper maintenance plan, no corrective action being taken, a complete lack of proper direction, funding or focus and the health, safety, and welfare of students and teachers alike was being placed in continuous jeopardy.”

McAfee is asking for damages exceeding $15,000 including lost wages and benefits, and he wants his old job back, the suit states.

In an interview earlier this year, McAfee said he broke purchasing policies by hiring a local firm to fix emergency problems at five schools.

The air-quality problems are an ongoing saga.

Teachers have filed workers’ compensation claims. The state has given millions of dollars to correct the problems at certain schools. The district has hired consultants and companies.

Even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been involved, at one point in 2001 determining that problems at Cape Coral High School were on their way to improving.

“It’s always been a long-term problem in the school district,” said Bruce Proud, teachers union executive director.

The district has conducted cleanups of several schools, including San Carlos Park Elementary School.

Cape High had highly publicized air-quality problems.

Teresa McVey of North Fort Myers led the fight to clean up Cape High's air quality last year and considered filing her own lawsuit.

“It’s a really tough and expensive lawsuit,” she said. “If that’s the only way they can get things cleaned up, that’s the way it has to be. This has been an ongoing problem and they haven’t corrected it.”