>> this tragedy probably wouldn't have occurred. >> how it could have been prevented and could still happen again. battery-powered brain. it can change people's minds. >> it felt fantastic. i didn't care what was doing it. >> is it a cure for depression? revealing investigation. stories with impact. this is cnn presents with tonight's host drew griffin. >> but they found out their school had a problem and not the teachers or the test scores or even the other kids. the problem is the building. it's toxic. that's right. it wasn't safe for the children. d ps-5 is isn't alone. as part of dr. sanjay gupta ongoing reporting on toxic towns he found all over the country children are going to school that can make them skick and th first stop is ps-51. >> she is helping her son get ready for the first day of school. brand op seems excited but marisol seems nerves. this is more than just a case of first day jitters. >> i cannot wait to get to school. >> in august, just weeks before school started, marisol saw this emergency meeting notice taped to brandon's school. ps-51 in the bronx. that night, marisol joined an auditorium packed with worried parents. chancellor dennis wallcot opened the meeting with a dramatic statement. >> so, first, i want to start out by apologizing to all of you. >> and he followed the apology with disturbing news. >> we decided to do environmental reviews. your school came with a result that we were not satisfied with with an elevated level of tce. >> tce or trichlorethelyne is a carcinogen and prolonged exposure can cause cancer and even death. tests at ps-51 showed tce levels at over hundred times worse than what's considered safe. >> based on the final confirmation, we thought we needed to shut the building down. >> parents are upset. >> you are using euphemisms. you're trying to be nice. that was a building that was storing chemicals that were cancer-causing agents. and because of the vicinity and the children that are involved, you didn't care. >> and you guys, board of ed, first allowed it to be used as a school for our children. and i think it's so inappropriate. >> reporter: but the parents were even more upset by the fact that the board of education discovered the contamination in january 2011. yet, parents weren't told. and their children were kept in class through the end of the year. >> i voice my displeasure with our folks and myself as far as the timeliness of that notification. and from this point on, whenever we get a positive notification around some type of environmental issue, the parent, the community, the staff, and the school community will be notified immediately. >> i met marisol outside that contaminated school. so the staff, the kids, all of the people who are essentially in this building, a good chunk of their days, knew nothing about this? >> no. the chancellor said he was sorry. >> reporter: how worried are you? >> very worried. this is the school right here. >> reporter: marisol says even brandon, who's normally upbeat, is worried. do you like this new building? >> um-hmm. >> reporter: do you know why you're in the new building? >> because they closed down because of tce, a chemical. >> reporter: you know all that? what do you know about tce? >> it's a cancer-causing chemical. >> reporter: we wanted to ask chancellor wallcot why they didn't tell parents about the toxic chemical in the school until months after they knew about it. but after repeated requests for an interview, his office declined to speak with cnn. >> for the sheer callousness and recklessness of the behavior towards kids, this is as bad as i've ever seen. >> reporter: lawyer shawn collins has won a number of tce contamination suits for mmunities aroundhe country. >> the people who ran this school knew for at least six months that there were dangerous levels, in some cases, off-the-charts levels of chemical in the air that these kids were breathing and yet they let those kids go there day in, day out every day for the rest of a semester. unconscionable. >> reporter: colin says the building should never have been a school. >> it's an old industrial site. not a place to have kids going to school. >> reporter: new york city records show ps-51 did house a car garage and a lamp factory. tce, once used to degrease metal could have been leftover waste. many schools around the country are built on old industrial sites, according to lenny siegel who digs up the past of toxic schools. >> we don't consider contamination before we decide where to put the school. and particularly in new york city where they have so many leased schools on leased properties, most of which are former industrial sites, or at least many of which, i don't know the exact number, they had a policy of not looking for problems. >> reporter: siegel believes that ground and water testing ought to be mandatory. hi also says ps-51 was probably always problematic. just weeks before brandon and the other ps-51 kids started at their new school, parents were hit with more unsettling news. tests revealed slightly elevated levels of a common, but a toxic, pce. >> and what is going to happen to our children? >> reporter: parents showed up at another meeting to confront the chancellor. >> at first i have to say dennis wallcot, how dare you? >> how dare you! >> reporter: the chancellor dismissed the results as insignificant. >> there was an open container. the levels came back down. >> reporter: but parents like marisol no longer trust the school system. what are you going to do? what's the plan? >> i'm just going to watch him consistently. i mean, any little thing that he gets is going to be an alarm for me. he's 8 years old and it's scary toee i haveo see what is going to happen with him. i pray that nothing is going to come of this. but you just don't know. >> reporter: when we come back. >> about a third of our schools have some kind of problem that causes respiratory problems in children. >> it is horrific. with the capital one cash rewards card you get a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more cash -- well, except her. no! but, i'm about to change that. ♪ every little baby wants 50% more cash... ♪ phhht! fine, you try. 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[ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. ♪ what's in your wallet? ♪ what's in your...your... ♪ ♪ what's in your wallet? you want to save money on car insurance? no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york. hey little guy, wake up! aw, come off it mate! geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance. we have seen a school tamed contaminated by a toxic chemical in new york where many schools sit on old industrial sites. but the problem goes far beyond toxic chemicals. our kids spend half their waking day in school. but there are no air quality standards for classrooms in the united states. in fact, one school in three has air quality so bad, by e.p.a. standards, it can make children sick. some fed-up parents didn't wait for summer vacation. they said their kids are staying home until thing get better. here, again, dr. sanjay gupta. ♪ >> reporter: in picturesque winston, connecticut, a a 250-year-old new england town. a typical school day at hinsdale, elementary. but one fourth grader matthew aslin won't be there this morning. or any morning. >> now, if you look at him, what do you think? do you think he's going to be friendly? >> reporter: matthew's mother is home schooling her son this year. >> when he was out of school, he was well. and when he was in school, he became ill. last year was, by far, his worst year. he missed more than 50 days of school. >> reporter: mold at hinsdale, she says, was making her son sick. >> this bag represents most of the medications that matthew was on last year. this is a mist. he was given erythromicin. this is right before he went into the hospital for pan sinusitis. when he left school, he left all of this behind him. he needs none of it. so this is garbage. >> alexandria's parents pulled her from school after her persistent cough wouldn't go away. that was a tough decision because her father, paul, was on the school board at the time. >> she was put on nebulizer, steroids, and another medication. medication. since she's been at another school, she hasn't been on any of it. >> reporter: the school district spent $16,000 this fall to get rid of the mold at hinsdale and the board is deciding whether to close the school temporarily to repair a leaky roof and other repairs. only some of the population is susceptible to mold or dust. but for those who are, the symptoms get increasingly severe. in maryville, connecticut, so many students and teachers were getting sick with respiratory problems that officials decided to tear down mckinley elementary and start from scratch. the school was riddled with mold. >> i started to get sick the second year when they put me in the basement classroom. >> reporter: mckinley's special ed teacher jo ellen lawson taught for 23 years before she became permanently disabled with a serious lung condition called chronic destructive pulmonary disease. >> there are three levels, mild, moderate and severe. because i've lost 50% of my lung capacity, i'm considered a moderate copd person. i've never had a pain-free day since then because i have chronic pain. i have muscle spasms. >> reporter: you can see another source of pain for jo ellen if you ask her if she misses teaching. >> i'm sorry, that's a really loaded question for someone who's been forced to leave the profession when they didn't want to. i'm sorry. >> reporter: if you think connecticut is somehow unique, consider this. a 2010 survey of school nurses nationally found 40% of children and staff sickened by their school environment. and not all school districts have the money to fix the problem. here at southern middle school in reading, pennsylvania, concerns about air quality closed the basement gym. and mold is visible in the computer lab. >> we see some colonies. there is probably two or three different kinds of molds there. >> reporter: and take a look upstairs. >> when it rains heavily, the water actually rains into the room. what we do is we take these buckets, a trash can, and we collect the water. >> it's raining outside and inside. >> reporter: a teacher shot this video. >> what about mold? one of the residual effects to the water would be mold, certainly. >> reporter: drew miles is acting superintendent of reading schools. he's seen the video. he says there's no money to replace that roof. >> the buildings continue to deteriorate abd we only have a small amount of dollars to do minimal things like new roofing. >> there are some who would say this would never happen in my school. >> this teacher agreed to meet me in reading, pennsylvania. how big of a problem would you say air quality, in-door air quality is to a student's health? >> right now, the last estimates said about a third of our schools. about a third of our schools have some kind of problem that causes respiratory problems in children. >> reporter: that's remarkable. >> it's horrific! it is horrific! >> reporter: would you send your kid to this school? >> to this school, would i send my child to this school? for the quality of education that i believe that these teachers can provide and the principal will demand, yes. from a facilities standpoint, if i had another option, i would exercise it. >> reporter: you're the superintendent. people are going to be surprised because i mean, you're the guy who they are going to say, look. make it the school that you want to send your own kid to. but you can't do that? >> i can't with the financial means that i have now. >> i know the solution to this. and it costs money. and this, it's the right thing to do to get these schools the money they need so that kids have healthy places to learn. >> the acting superintendent we saw there was fired this spring appear we first aired the story on cnn. and just last month, the school board said they're laying off more than 10% of the teachers in reading, pennsylvania. no mention of repairs to the school. coming up, it was the worst food poisoning outbreak in more than 30 years and it could have been prevent. we investigate. but i knew i was gonna get that opportunity one day, and that's what happened with university of phoenix. nothing can stop me now. i feel like the sky's the limit with what i can do and what i can accomplish. my name is naphtali bryant and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. dude you don't understand, this is my dad's car. look at the car! my dad's gonna kill me dude... 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[ gasps ] this fiber one 90 calorie brownie has all the moist, chewy, deliciousness you desire. mmmm. thanks. at 90 calories, the brownie of your dreams is now deliciously real. to hear of people sickened and dying from eating cantaloupes infected with a bacteria called listeria. the deadly food outbreak lasted months. then, in december, health officials announced it was over. by then, at least 30 people had died and it was the deadliest food outbreak in nearly 100 years. we decided to investigate how the outbreak happened and how it could have been prevented. >> reporter: you pick them out knowing how sweet it's going to taste and how good it's going to feel. summer cantaloupe. you're eating right. you're eating healthy. and all the better if you were pregnant like michelle wakely. do you remember the cantaloupe? bringing it home thinking i'm pregnant? >> i'm going to eat healthy. >> reporter: right. >> getting fruit cups at restaurants. okay. it's going to be good. it's summertime. it's nice out. fruit is in season. tastes good. >> reporter: cantaloupes in season? >> yeah. >> reporter: that was last season. and since the moment she ate that cantaloupe, her life and her baby's life would never be the same. >> well, we went out late in the afternoon and we were at a store and i had to call dave and i said dave, i'm having terrible contractions. >> reporter: nearly three months before she was due, the baby was literally forcing her way out of her mother's poisoned body. >> oh, my god. i was so scared. it hurt so bad. the baby was trying to force her way out. the baby was pretty far into my bloodstream. >> it was lysteria. a dangerous infection for pregnant women, for the elderly, for small children. the lysteria had come from cantaloupe from one farm. michelle and her husband had no idea about all of that. they just knew both the mother and the child were in trouble. when they told you this baby was going to be born 11 weeks early? >> it was awful. the doctor came in and he told you about the problems that could happen with a baby that was born that premature. it was devastating. it was like she could be blind, she could be deaf, she could have heart problems, cerebral palsy, adhd and the list went on and on. >> reporter: michelle's baby was born in a rush, within hours, and as soon as she arrived, baby kendall was whisked away by a team of emergency doctors. michelle and david couldn't every hold her. barely saw her. when you did see her, what did you see? >> by probably saw her at 6:00, 7:00 the following morning. >> so red. wrinkled. it didn't really look like a real baby. it looked like something you look at in a picture. bones showing through. >> translucent? >> yes. >> reporter: this is kendall today. better. still developmentally behind her peers. >> she's got a button surgically put in her stomach and it's like a little valve. you open it up. >> reporter: being fed through a button in her stomach. still under 24-hour care. you still don't know what kendall is facing? >> correct. >> right. >> reporter: you have a couple years, at least, to wait, watch and worry. >> every milestone is like is she going to do it? is she not going to do it. is she going to be three months late because she was born three months early. still, we won't know everything until she goes to school and starts to learn. >> reporter: kendall and michelle are among the lucky ones. they lived. we now know, according to federal statistics, the lysteria outbreak last september was the most deadly food outbreak in the u.s. in nearly a century. one of the worst three outbreaks ever. nearly three dozen americans died. it should never have happened. last fall, as people began to die and fall sick, investigators from the food and drug administration and centers for disease control fanned out across two dozen states interviewing those who were falling ill or relatives of those who died. they took samples of blood and samples of fruit still sitting in refrigerators. and the trail of evidence, the cantaloupes themselves, led to this remote part of eastern colorado near the town of holly and one single farm, jensen. >> it truly was an a ha moment. >> reporter: dr. jim gordy was the chief investigator on the case. and you were able to go back to all of these victims' families and they were told look it, cantaloupes grown on this particular event four hours southeast of denver is what caused the death of your loved one. >> yes, the evidence is very, very strong in this case. it's some of the strongest evidence i've ever seen. jensen farms has been a fixture of this part of colorado. since the early 1900s when the first jensen arrived from denmark. since then, this dry dirt has been passed from generation to generation. two years ago, it went to eric and ryan jensen. they grew up growing cantaloupes, knew the business by heart. but last year, they decided to make just a few changes. and it would cost them everything. >> they turned the operation upside down with some significant changes they made. it's a very tragic alignment. poor facility design, poor design of equipment and very unique post harvest handling of those melons. if any of those things would have been prevented, this tragedy probably wouldn't have occurred. >> reporter: when we come back, what went so wrong and why didn't anyone notice? 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