
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 27, 1991                   TAG: 9103270501
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                LENGTH: Short

SCHOOL HAS RASH OF FAINTING SPELLS

A rash of fainting spells among students at a Fairfax County high school has prompted a few parents to take their children out of school.

Nearly 20 youngsters and at least one teacher at West Springfield High School have suffered fainting spells, headaches and hyperventilation since school began in September.

In the most extreme case, a 15-year-old girl fainted 32 times during the past 13 months and is now being educated at home. The girl did not faint at all during the summer recess, her father said.

Air quality tests conducted by the school system in January showed only one unusual reading: two classrooms had a carbon dioxide level of 1,200 parts per million, which Thomas Ferguson, a Fairfax school official, said is neither unreasonable nor dangerous. One thousand parts per million is normal.

- Associated Press

by CNB