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Judge Decides Paden City High School Stays Open

By Staff | Aug 1, 2024

The attorney representing Paden City residents in their fight to keep Paden City High School open told a crowd in the city Wednesday night that Judge C. Richard Wilson had ruled that it will stay open for the upcoming school year.

Teresa Toriseva announced this in front of a crowd of about 150 people who had gathered for a prayer vigil in front of Paden City Museum. She took no questions Wednesday night, but said they would hold a news conference this morning to discuss the order.

When reached later Wednesday night, Toriseva applauded Paden City residents’ tenacity.

“The people of Paden City are amazing,” she said via text. “They stand for family and community. They work hard and they take care of each other. PCHS is a special place built by generations of people who have always invested in their kids. Let the Wildcats band play!”

Wetzel County Superintendent Cassie Porter had announced in June that Paden City High School would be closed for the 2024-25 school year due to unsafe conditions. The school sits on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site directly above a plume of the chemical tetrachloroethylene, also known as PCE.

Toriseva mentioned some specific parts of order to the crowd, including that Wilson said the plaintiff’s expert witnesses – Paden City Water Superintendent Josh Billiter and Doug Snider – were credible.

The crowd responded with cheers and applause, congratulating each other, while Toriseva congratulated the crowd for their “tough fight.”

Toriseva said she didn’t know what the future would hold, whether the order would be appealed or whether it would stand, but she said she and attorney Josh Miller would stand ready to defend this decision.

The decision came after Wilson held a hearing July 25 in a packed Wetzel County Courthouse that lasted nearly seven hours. At that hearing, both Toriseva and Ken Webb of Charleston firm Bowles Rice for the defense both offered testimony from expert witnesses stating their respective cases.

Last year, Paden City residents were unable to drink or wash with city water after an air stripper malfunctioned at the city’s water treatment plant, allowing dangerous levels of PCE to infiltrate the water system.

PCE has long been an issue in the city, its source likely a former dry cleaning business.

Porter’s announcement was met with significant pushback from Paden City community members. Then, on July 12, Toriseva filed a petition for injunctive relief on behalf of Paden City residents.

The plaintiffs claimed Porter’s ultimate intention has been to permanently close the school, reorganize the school district and create consolidated high schools, although Porter had maintained her decision was made strictly for health and safety reasons.