Dangerous 2014 wall collapse at Roncalli Elementary hidden from parents, blogger says
A local blogger is raising serious questions about an undisclosed incident at Roncalli Elementary School in St. John's.
Documents uncovered by Des Sullivan show on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014, a two-storey concrete wall at the school collapsed.
The files were obtained through an access of information report.
The incident occurred as the school was in the middle of a multi-year expansion and renovation project.
However, before an engineer was able to come in and determine the cause and assess the relative safety of the building, classes continued as scheduled and no parents were notified of the collapse.
The site wasn't inspected by a structural engineer until that Monday afternoon after classes had already started.
In a report, the structural engineer notes that while strong winds contributed to the collapse, the main cause was shoddy workmanship.
"The wall collapse occurred because it was not adequately braced at the time of the wind event," wrote the structural engineer in the report.
"The contractor did not provide sufficient bracing to stabilize the wall, during construction, and as a result the high wind speeds caused the wall to become unstable and topple over,"
On his blog, Des Sullivan describes the incident as "an accident waiting to happen".
He wants to know why the collapse was kept secret and why classes went ahead as scheduled before the cause and extent of the damage was known.
Cathy Bennett, Liberal MHA for Virginia Waters, is also among those wanting answers.
"How can the Davis Government justify keeping the incident quiet and not telling parents who would rightly be concerned about the safety of their children?" wrote Bennett in a news release.
Bennett is calling for the government to publicly release copies of all the inspection reports from the construction of Roncalli Elementary in 2014.
