🚀 go-pugleaf

Posted for a friend...


===================================================================BEGIN==
===LETTER=======================

                                       Tuesday, April  16, 1996
                                                   

Marie Ann O�Hara
PO Box 534
Bolivar, MO  65613

Attention:  Evaluation Core
Patrica Thrash, Executive Director

Glen Niemeyer, Chair Provost,
Grand Valley State University, Michigan

North Central Association Accreditation
30 North Lasalle
Chicago, Illinois  60602
 Fax:  (312)-263-7462

Dear Evaluation Core for Southwest Baptist University:

The following situation is pertinent to the pending accreditation 
evaluation of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri
(April 29 through May1, 1996) and certainly reflects on the integrity 
of this institution, its Board of Trustees, its administration,  its
faculty,
and its staff.  

It was my belief that this situation would be resolved from within
Southwest
Baptist University, but it is increasingly apparent that outside
intervention
and observation will be necessary in order to facilitate change.

I have taken the precaution of posting this letter to several archived
Internet mailing lists and newsgroups in the hope that my concerns will be
heard.

I feel that the penalty for attending a Christian university should not be
injury, disability, or death. 

                                                         Sincerely,



                                                         Marie Ann O�Hara

Enclosures:
April 16, 1996 letter to the
Department of Agriculture


======================================================
===========BEGIN=====ENCLOSURE====LETTER===========



Tuesday, April 16, 1996
         

Marie Ann O�Hara
PO Box 534
Bolivar, MO 65613
(Telephone # deleted)

Attention: Jim Lea, Pesticide Investigator
Department of Agriculture
Division of Plant Industries
Pesticide Misuse Division
PO Box 630
Jefferson City, MO  65102-0630
Fax:  (314)-751-0005

Dear Sir:

I would like to request an investigation into the misapplication 
of pesticides in the buildings and on the grounds of Southwest 
Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri by the Southwest Baptist 
University staff and their pest controller, Campbell Pest Control 
of Springfield, Missouri and the on-going attempts by individuals 
associated with these entities to conceal the identity, antidote, 
application warnings, toxicity and possible delayed, cumulative,
and long-term effects of skin absorption and inhalation exposures 
to these compounds.

Contrary to the insistence of SBU officials that the pesticides 
were "non-toxic" and harmless, it is now known that the pesticides 
were, in fact, organophosphate "peoplecides" derived from Sarin 
nerve gas, whose odorless, colorless degration product, hydrogen 
cyanide, was used to execute concentration camp victims and 
(until it was recently declared unconstitutionally cruel) was utilized
to execute death row prisoners.

More than thirty pesticides, including endrocrine-disrupting 
organochlorines (related to DDT), pyrethroids, and carbamates, 
were admittedly used in fumigation while students were in the 
buildings.  Carcinogenic and neurotoxic solvents, such as 
aromatic petroleum distillates and xylene, were routinely laced 
with these pesticides as propellant agents. 

Though my doctors confirmed a violent, near-fatal "reaction" 
to such an application while I was attending class in the Casebolt 
Science Center in September of 1988 (which involved chemical 
respiratory burns and bleeding pneumonia), I was again re-exposed 
my first day back to class four months later...at 12:10 PM in 
the Old Administration Building.

As later revelations established, SBU administrators had ignored 
various student and faculty complaints about the pesticides
since 1962 and had ordered monthly, daytime applications of
these toxic pesticides campus-wide. One notable exception was 
the Old Administration Building, which was sprayed at 12:10 PM--
after the administrators had gone to lunch, though students, like 
myself, were still walking down the hallways and attending classes.  

After I made both verbal and written complaints regarding the  
first acute poisoning, SBU's long-time insurer, ITT Hartford, 
paid for some of my acute medical care.  Following the second 
exposure, the ITT Hartford agent, Tom Furr, apologized, made 
arrangements to cover some of the medical costs for the second 
injury, and explained that he had warned SBU not to fumigate 
during business hours.

I later learned, however, that ITT Hartford had not just issued 
a warning, but had actually dropped SBU's coverage following my 
first injury, and a second insurer, Preferred Risk, was evidently 
not even informed of my subsequent exposure in January 1989.

Nonetheless, SBU officials continued to allow an unlicensed, poorly-
trained applicator to fumigate for several more semesters, in spite 
of label warnings that introducing the product into the air and spraying
while occupants were present constituted a felony and that inhalation 
of the pesticide could be harmful or fatal. 

Another SBU student, Judy Taylor, who was not even enrolled
when I was attending SBU, wrote a Letter-to-the-Editor (Bolivar 
Herald Free Press, Sept. 26, 1990) to report that, long after I was
disabled by the pesticide poisoning and could no longer continue 
my education, she and her classmates were subjected to a similar
injurious pesticide exposure...in the SBU Casebolt Science Center. 

Although I attempted to initiate a complaint with the Agriculture 
Department on February 2, 1990, due to the life-threatening nature 
of the respiratory, neurological, immunological and other injuries 
resulting from repeated acute and chronic exposures and the threats 
to my health and life, I was unable to proceed at that time.

After exhaustive endeavors to deal with this matter by other 
means, I was compelled to file suit against the Southwest Baptist 
University and its pest controller, Campbell Pest Control of 
Springfield, Missouri on October 9, 1991 in Greene County Court 
(Case number, CV191CC2880).

Please consider this letter, the filing papers, and the extensive 
sworn Interrogatories which were filed in this litigation on December 
20, 1993 as a means of initiating this complaint.  I have supplied 
the times, dates, places, and names of other individuals who were 
exposed and who witnessed exposures in this court documentation. 

The sworn depositions of several Southwest Baptist University 
administrators and Campbell Pest Control owner, Terry Campbell, 
and his applicator contradict statements previously given to the
Agriculture Department, SBU students and their parents, SBU
alumni, the Missouri Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist 
Convension leadership, and the Bolivar community.

Further, some SBU staff and their associates (particularly those 
involved with the governing bodies, community and church programs, 
and the assistance agencies of Polk County and the City of Bolivar) 
have willfully encouraged hostility, intimidation, and injury by
deliberately propagating false information and/or tampering with
academic, medical, insurance, and other records.

I would ask that you not contact me directly due to the severity of 
my medical condition and speech impairments.  However, please 
feel free to contact my attorney, Mr. Melvin Belli, for additional 
information or assistance.  He may be reached at: The Law Offices 
of Melvin M. Belli, 30 Hotaling Place, San Francisco, CA  94111;  
(Telephone and Fax deleted).

You may send written communication to my home address:  PO Box 534, 
Bolivar, MO 65613.  Please send any certified mail without restriction,
because signing for such letters, as required by the post office, is 
difficult and painful for me.  I ask that you forward copies of all
written
correspondence to my attorney at the address given above. 


                                      Sincerely,

 
 
                                      Marie Ann O�Hara         


=======================================================

This communication was also sent to the following:

The Membership of the Board of the
North Central Association Accreditation
30 North Lasalle
Chicago, Illinois  60602
Fax:  (312)-263-7462

Patrica Thrash, Executive Director

Glen Niemeyer, Chair Provost,
Grand Valley State University, Michigan
 
Dorothy MacConkey, NCA Vice Chairman, 
President of Davis University, Elkins, West Virginia

Linda Debolt , Business Manager,
Internal Medicine, Riverton, Wyoming

John Cordova, President,
South Mountain Community College, Arizona

Richard Fairbanks, Manager,
Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico

Maureen Faye, President,
University of Detroit Mercy, Michigan

Stella Clestino Fernandez, Vice President and Provost,
New Campus, Pima County University, Arizona

Sondra Gautt, Assistant Vice Chancellor,
University of Kansas, Kansas

Cynthia Heelan, President,
Colorado Mountain College, Colorado

Margret Lee, President,
Oakton Community College, Illinois

Ann Matasar, Amoco Distinguished Professor of International Business,
Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois

Kay Schallenkamp, Provost and Vice Chancellor,
University of Wisconsin, White Water, Wisconsin

Clifford Shields, Retired Financial Officer,
Standard Oil Company of Ohio

Richard K. Smith, Vice President for Financial Affairs,
Earlham College, Indiana

David Wee, Professor of English,
St. Olaf College, Minnesota

Please forgive any misspellings or inaccuracies as this information
 was not available in print and was transcribed over the telephone.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++END++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++