A Cawston resident is sounding the alarm on what he calls a looming health disaster for the nearly 200 students at Cawston Primary School.
Joe Yearwood says a sandpit where some of the kids like to play has become a place of refuse for neighbourhood cats.
He warned the school district about it months ago but even after the new school year started, the problem was still there.
“Now we have six-year-old children playing in the sandpit, and I’ve seen it from my own eyes. I watched two kindergartners, maybe grade one, take the sand, pick out a piece of cat feces about an inch long and toss it up on grass and continue playing in the sand,” said Yearwood.
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Yearwood says the school district isn’t making it a priority to keep students safe. He worries about the potential health hazard exposure to this can cause.
“That’s priority number one: the safety of children, the health of children,” said Yearwood. “I don’t care about mowing the grass. I’m more worried about them picking up feces and getting poisoned and dying.”
Exposure to cat feces can be hazardous to human health. Humans can contract e-coli, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea.
In rare cases, other bacterial infections can even result in death.
Assistant Superintendent Jim Insley says the school district tries to remove animal waste off school grounds, but it’s almost impossible to get rid of it all. Insley says one option would be to cover the pit entirely but that would have to be discussed with the school first.
After learning about the problem from CHBC News, the school district closed off that area to students indefinitely.
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