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2007 21 January :: 6.11 pm
Justice?
By Barton Deiters
The Grand Rapids Press
CEDAR SPRINGS -- Ryan Gorter thought he had put the whole incident behind him when he agreed to pay $2,000 in restitution for the large-scale cleanup that ensued after he brought mercury into Cedar Springs High School.
Then he got a certified letter saying he owed another $47,000.
"I'd just like to see this all go away," the 19-year-old said Friday. Gorter made news in May 2005 after he brought a vial of the heavy metal to school to show some friends. Some spilled on the ledge of a whiteboard and onto the carpeting. A handful of students reportedly touched it.
Coming into contact with small doses of mercury can cause breathing difficulty, chest pain and headaches. Large concentrations can damage the brain, kidneys and lungs.
When school officials found out, the building was shut down for two days. Students had to be decontaminated, and Young's Environmental Cleanup spent a weekend using tracking devices to see where the mercury had been.
Within a few days, the carpeting was replaced and walls were scrubbed down.
Expenses totaling $47,045.89 were sent to the school's Indian Insurance Co.
A short time later, Gorter was charged with malicious destruction of property and unlawful possession of a harmful device, but those felony charges were dropped when he agreed to pay the district's $2,000 insurance deductible -- something that took the teen a year and a half to do.
"They told us it was all over when we paid that deductible," said Gorter, who works as a CAD operator for a monument company and has a 5-month-old daughter to support. He still lives at his parents' home and has been recovering from surgery following a work injury.
Gorter, who plans to fight the demand for payment, is not getting a lot of sympathy from Cedar Springs Superintendent Andrew Booth.
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"It doesn't include any of the pain and agony of all the families that had to find care for their children when the schools were closed," Booth said. "It's thousands and thousands of families that are affected."
Booth said Gorter has shown little remorse and was slow to pay the $2,000. He claims Gorter has changed his story about the mercury numerous times.
Gorter's attorney, Edward McNeely, said his client found the mercury while he was a lab assistant for a middle school teacher who was moving into the high school. While disposing of items from the teacher's old desk, he found a jar with the mercury in it, and was unaware of its toxicity.
"Ryan was doing what the teacher told him to do," McNeely said. "Where else would he have gotten the mercury?"
The attorney said it was up to the district to know about the mercury and its potential for leaking. He said if the case goes to court, the district will be brought into the proceedings to defend its actions.
Booth said he has no idea where Gorter could have found the mercury but says it was not from one of his schools. He said years ago the district did a sweep of all buildings and eliminated hazardous chemicals.
He said the cleanup investigation found mercury at Gorter's house and the high school, but none at the middle school.
McNeely said he has written the Chicago law firm representing the insurance company, saying the school district, not Gorter, "bears responsibility for the event in question."
Chicago-based Meachum and Spahr Attorneys at Law did not respond to calls seeking comment.
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