With exclusive photos from Gwyn Gittens.
Gwyn Gittens is a elected member of The School District of Lee County.
The photos show rusty doors, chipped cinder blocks, and broken tie-down straps, and uneven ramps into portable classrooms. The photos were taken at Varsity Lakes Middle but conditions are just the same at other Lehigh Acres schools and are unacceptable according to Gittens.
The district responded with spokesman Rob Spicker saying students most definitely do not go to school in dangerous conditions.
“The portables in the photographs are all from one campus, and they were inspected by a state-certified fire inspector in January,” Spicker said.
Spicker said that’s when the district made a plan to fix the portables that had problems, but that fix hasn’t happened yet. The work will be done after school lets out for the summer.
“Had there been any life-threatening hazards, the inspector would have immediately shut down the use of those portables,” Spicker explained.
Gittens doesn’t buy it. In a email, she told Lehigh Acres Gazette the photos she shared speak for themselves, loud and clear.
Gittens said, however, that repairs were supposed to begin in January, not in June. And to that point, she reiterated that the photos should speak for themselves.
The Inspector General has assigned a case #2021-04-10-0002
From an email — The Office of the Chief Inspector General received your complaint on April 10, 2021, in which you expressed concerns about the School District of Lee County and the safety of its school buildings.
After having had the opportunity to review your concerns, by copy of this letter, we are referring your complaint to the Inspector General for the Department of Education for review and action deemed appropriate.
Also, Lee County Code Enforcement will be making a visit to all schools and sighting the school district if needed.