Former aide gets cancer, sues district

WILSONVILLE -- An employee of the former Wilsonville Primary School said Thursday that she is suing the West Linn-Wilsonville School District for $3 million for allegedly exposing her to carcinogens she claims gave her incurable lung cancer.

Jeannie Sawyer worked as an instructional assistant to special education children from 1992 to 1994 at the school. She said she spent much of her time playing with children on the floor, which was covered by cracking and deteriorating asbestos tile.

"Because of their negligence, it's going to cost me my life, and that's a huge price to pay for a $7- or $8-an-hour job," said Sawyer, 44, at a news conference Thursday.

Sawyer said she was exposed to asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls, also known as PCBs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined the district more than $300,000 in 2000 -- six years after Sawyer's employment -- for mishandling PCBs, which are carcinogenic, after a light fixture containing the substance leaked at Wilsonville Primary. The district later worked out a settlement that allowed it to avoid paying most of the fine.

Sawyer also said that the district failed to notify her by letter, as it had other former employees, of exposure to carcinogens.

She filed the lawsuit in Clackamas County Circuit Court in June. Sawyer, who lives in Chandler, Ariz., and was in the Portland area for a deposition, held a news conference at the site of the old school Thursday morning. She said she wanted to warn other former staff and students of the school that mild ailments could be an indicator of cancer: "If you have any type of symptom, like a cough or shortness of breath, go see your doctor."

Thursday afternoon, school district attorney Peter Mersereau and superintendent Roger Woehl held a news conference to counter Sawyer's statements.

Mersereau said there is no reason for former staff and students to be concerned for their health.

"What we would not want to happen is every time someone has a sore throat or a cough they start thinking of cancer in regards to Wilsonville Primary," Mersereau said.

Mersereau said this is the first lawsuit the West Linn-Wilsonville district has faced with someone complaining that carcinogens in a school caused cancer. Mersereau said there are many causes of cancer and he doesn't think Sawyer can trace her cancer to Wilsonville Primary.

The 500-student Wilsonville Primary was replaced by Boones Ferry Primary School in 2001. Wilsonville Primary was demolished to make way for an Albertson's grocery store and shopping center, Woehl said.

While PCBs were a problem in 1999 and may have been in 1998, Mersereau said, all PCB-containing light fixtures are gone from the district today.

Mersereau said Wilsonville Primary was fined three times in spring 2000 for failing to report or post the existence of asbestos in the school, but he knows of no asbestos exposure at Wilsonville Primary. Mersereau said some West Linn-Wilsonville schools still have asbestos in them, but it is contained, and that the situation "is no different than hundreds of buildings of the same age in our state."

When Sawyer was asked Thursday morning how she can pinpoint the cause of her cancer to two years at Wilsonville Primary, she said there couldn't be another possible cause. She said she uses natural cleaning chemicals in her home, has never smoked and does not spend time around smokers.

"When you're diagnosed, you spend a lot of time thinking how this can be," Sawyer said.

Sawyer's cancer is known as non-small cell adenocarcinoma. She said she has been told that patients diagnosed with her condition usually live three months to five years. She is undergoing chemotherapy, although she said she can't be cured.

One of Sawyer's attorneys, Michael Seidl, said Sawyer is suing for $3 million, but the law may limit the amount she can collect to $200,000. Seidl was unsure of the timeline, adding that it is possible Sawyer won't be alive when the lawsuit is resolved.

Aimee Green:503-294-5969; aimeegreen@news.oregonian.com