Ten-year-old James Ford, who suffers from asthma, has been in and out of the hospital this school year — missing nearly 30 days at Public School 138 in the Bronx.
And instead of doing the things boys generally do on the weekends, the public housing resident is taking classes on Saturdays just to finish fifth grade on time.
His parents say his asthma has grown worse with the spread of dark mold across the bathroom ceiling caused by a leaky pipe in the family’s three-bedroom apartment at the Castle Hill Houses.
This story was reported by the NYCity News Service in conjunction with the Daily News as part of the Stop the Mold project, funded in part by the first Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education. Contributors include Allegra Abramo, Natalie Abruzzo, Julia Alsop, Frank Green, Gwynne Hogan, Ross Keith, Roxanne Scott, Melisa Stumpf and Maria Villasenor.
