GRAY, Ga. — In records obtained by 13WMAZ, the Jones County School District never notified parents about a gas leak and health dangers at Jones County High School.
"No, no, no, no, no. They would've called. The school would've called," Elizabeth Bridges said.
Bridges says she was skeptical when her son said there was a gas leak in school. Her son takes chemistry at Jones County High School. Two weeks ago, her son told her some of his classmates got sick from the gas.
Bridges took matters into her own hands.
"I called on Wednesday because I still hadn't heard anything from the school and that's when Mr. Woolfolk told me they did have a gas leak," she said.
The leak reportedly happened Sept. 15 in an honors chemistry class.
In one of the emails 13WMAZ obtained from an open records request, a science teacher says they turned on the Bunsen burner Wednesday afternoon to test it out because it hadn't been turned on for "several months" and says "it did not become apparent there was a gas leak in the room until the experiment had been completed and the smell of gas was still permeating."
The issue was resolved when maintenance crews and the principal arrived.
"That was kind of their resolution to it was the teachers no longer there so everything is good now," Bridges said.
13WMAZ did reach out to Principal Dennis Woolfolk and he did not get back to us.
By email, Woolfolk assured parents that school officials were dealing with the episode.
"I assure you that the safety of all the students is our highest priority," he wrote, in part, to one. "This issue was resolved, and accountability and safety measures will be addressed."
We also reached out to Superintendant Charles Lundy but he was out of town.
13WMAZ asked the school district whether county health and safety officials were notified. But the records released by the school don't show that any outside agencies were called in.
Don Graham, the county's fire chief and emergency management director, said he was not aware of the gas leak until contacted by 13WMAZ last week. He said fire crews would have cleared gas from the building and assisted sick students.
The school also never notified parents about the leak or about possible health risks to students.
But on Sept. 19, four days after the leak, Woolfolk sent a "OneCall" automated message to parents of chemistry students.
It said: "Dear Parents: This one call is to inform you that your child will be receiving a new teacher for Honors Chemistry at Jones County High School. We will be hiring a very highly qualified successful teacher in the next few days. We know there have been concerns regarding issues with this course, but I can assure you that we hold your child's safety and education in the highest regard."
Bridges hopes the school district will improve communication and safety measures.
"I think the next steps would be to reiterate those safety procedures, see if anything else needs to be put in place additionally to those procedures so this does not happen again," Bridges said.
Bridges says Woolfolk did everything to move the kids out of the area where the leak happened because there were other administrators in the building.
"It wouldn't be fair to say Mr. Woolfolk is responsible for this because as soon as he found out he went into action and got the school evacuated," she said.
She hopes speaking at the next school board meeting will bring some changes. The next school board meeting is October 3 at 6 p.m.