West Virginia school ordered to remain open after effort to close it due to toxic groundwater fears

PADEN CITY, W.Va. (AP) — A small West Virginia school will remain open after a judge sided with residents who fought a county superintendent’s decision to relocate classes due to contaminated groundwater under the school being on a national cleanup priority list.

Wetzel County Circuit Judge Richard Wilson on Wednesday ordered Paden City High School to be “reopened immediately and kept open as if it never closed,” news outlets reported.

In June, county Schools Superintendent Cassandra R. Porter announced that students, faculty and staff at the school would be relocated to existing schools in nearby New Martinsville when classes resume in August.

Attorneys representing a group of those students, faculty and staff then filed a petition to block the move. The petition argued that the federal government did not recommend closing the school because there was no health risk and that closing the school would “devastate” the community.

Wilson temporarily blocked Porter’s decision on July 12 pending a July 25 hearing. The judge issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday, reinstating all Paden City school personnel and directing equipment that was removed to be returned to the school.

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