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Hutt Valley School students set up outside Parliament due to mouldy classrooms

Hutt Valley School students brought their classes to the Parliament lawn today because their classrooms have been shut down due to toxic mould.

Dozens of senior Hutt Valley High School students sat on picnic blankets and camp chairs with their textbooks, pens and laptops in their first week of remote learning after unsafe levels of black mould were discovered in the school's C Block in March.

Following more testing, 13 learning spaces and a dance studio were closed.

Students expressed their concerns to Green Party MPs Teanau Tuiono and Ricardo Menendez today.

Moisture issues at the school go back years, with at least two reports identifying rotten, peeling roofs with holes.

Several MPs came out to meet the students.

National’s education spokesman, Paul Goldsmith,​ said a solution needed to be found quickly to get the students back into safe learning environments.