Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology routinely reports among the nation’s highest average SAT results and number of National Merit Scholarship finalists. Ronald Reagan and Al Gore have addressed its students, and educators from overseas often tour the school in search of inspiration.
But recently, what’s made the biggest impression isn’t the school’s supercomputer or its quantum physics lab — it’s the moldy ceilings. And the bug infestations. And the fact that the school’s young whizzes have been repeatedly threatened by falling ceiling panels, light fixtures and pieces of steel air ducts.
Some classrooms were so mildewed that parents complained their kids were developing allergies and had to use inhalers. A few months ago, then-principal Elizabeth Lodal visited a particularly musty anthropology classroom, where the school newspaper quoted her as saying, “I could feel my throat closing,” and, “I’ve got to get out of here.”
Ms. Lodal, who retired this month, confirms she had trouble breathing in the classroom.