Le Roy

Three rumors regarding the Le Roy High School property on South Street Road have persisted since news became public of a group of girls developing tic symptoms late last year.

We've attempted to research these rumors and here's what we've been able to find out so far.

Rumor: The school was built on a swamp. Apparently false. Aerial maps going back to 1938 show the area of the school is flat and dry. By 1967 it more clearly looks like farmland. Even the swamp currently to the west of the school building doesn't appear on the map. By 1974, there is some sign of a drainage ditch going into the area of the present swamp/drainage pond. The area immediately southwest of the track becomes progressively wooded over the decades. The 1995 NAPP Infrared Map shows the area of the school building looking like farmland, with not much of a marsh, if any, to the west, and the wooded area south of the track is heavily wooded. The 2002 map (top photo) shows the school under construction.

Rumor: TCE-laced fill dirt was used under the school or under athletic fields. Probably false. School construction does not require local permitting, so local planning agencies have no documentation on the construction of the school  We have a request in with the NYS Department of Education for any information the state's construction records might retain on this topic. However, again, the aerial views going back to 1938 show a flat area and no sign that the area was a swamp, so why would fill even be needed? Also, the train wreck site shows no signs of massive amounts of material being removed from that site.

Rumor: The school district turned down an offer of free property for a new school and purchased the current property from the brother of a school board member. Mostly true. Below is a list of each parcel that makes up the school property. Local attorney E. Robert Fussell confirmed that he offered property he owned from Woodward Drive, behind the houses on South Street, going south. Fussell thought the school should be built in the village and this property would be in walking distance of the elementary school and district building. The board instead decided to buy land to the south of its athletic fields on South Street Road. Some of the land was owned by Emily B. Pangrazio and Donald M. Pangrazio Jr. Ron Pangrazio was president of the school board at the time (we couldn't find current contact information for Pangrazio).

Parcel 31.-1-110: North end of the school property which contains athletic fields, including the school's track and football stadium. The district acquired the property Aug. 20, 1952 from Edward and Jessie Spry. According to GIS maps, the first signs of athletic use appears in 1963, when a track and field oval appears. The oval is not on the 1954 aerial map.

Parcel 31.-1-101: This parcel is off Summit Street and has been referred to "the town park." The parking area is where the media staged last Saturday morning. It's actually school district property.  The district acquired the 27.5-acre parcel Sept. 30, 1982, from Jessie Eckler (formerly Spry).

Parcel 31.-1-99.12: This is the parcel with a baseball diamond immediately west of the school building. It is six acres. The land was acquired for $35,000 from Irene Walters on Nov. 1, 2000.

Parcel 31.-1.136: The actual school building sits on this 23-acre parcel. It was acquired for $108,000 from the Pangrazio family on Oct. 20, 2000.

Parcel 31.-1-36: This parcel is nearly nine acres and contains a maintenance building, part of the school parking lot and a retention pond. It's north of the school. The property was obtained from the Hansen family for $120,000 on Oct. 26, 2000.

A possible chimney fire is reported at 87 Myrtle St. in the Village of Le Roy. A neighbor who called it in says there's a lot of smoke showing in the area. Le Roy Fire Department along with Bergen's are responding.

UPDATE 12:47 p.m.: The chief on scene calls for units to continue in. "It appears he did have a small fire going. He's got the bottom shut off now," says the chief, adding they will still need to take a look inside to determine the status.

UPDATE 12:52 p.m.: No signs of heat are found in the basement using a thermal-imaging camera. Ditto for the walls and floors of the residence. Now they will get on the roof and look into the chimney using the camera to check for heat.

UPDATE 1:10 p.m.: A firefighter reports there is no heat to the touch on the outside of the chimney up to the roofline. There is light smoke still coming from the chimney.

UPDATE 1:15 p.m.: A code enforcement officer is called to the scene.

UPDATE 1:24 p.m.: "Fire is out. Units are picking up and they'll be going shortly."

This afternoon, I took a drive down Gulf Road in Le Roy. As usual, the old quarry visible from the road was interesting to see.

I also stopped by the entrance to the Lehigh Valley Railway derailment site. When I arrived, an employee of the company hired by the EPA to manage the site was standing roadside chatting with a reporter from New York City and an independent researcher. The employee couldn't talk, but gave me a phone number of somebody who might talk. Hopefully, in a day or two -- depending who calls me back and when -- I'll have a follow up on the situation at the site.

There is a new sign on the entrance gate at the site. It was posted today. The new sign says, "No Trespassing." (photo below)

The following statement was shared with The Batavian by the office of Rep. Kathy Hochul. Hochul issued the statement initially in response to a request for a statement from CNN.

The last several months have been challenging for the community of Le Roy. While we are all are anxious for answers, it’s important that we allow medical and environmental experts to collect the facts and accurately identify the source of this unusual and unfortunate situation.

Our top priority must be to protect the health and safety of the community of Le Roy and to this end, my office has been in contact with various federal agencies, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency.

As a Representative of this community, I’m committed to ensuring that the residents of Le Roy have access to the resources needed to fully understand this situation.

Press release:

Kim Cox, the superintendent of the Le Roy Central School District, is referring media inquiries on medical and environmental questions to the experts from the New York State Department of Health, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Environmental Protection Agency. They are best equipped to answer your technical questions, as they have ours. 

As has been communicated, the District has been working closely for months with numerous medical professionals, the State Department of Health, the State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Environmental Protection Agency. All of these agencies and dozens of professionals from these agencies have assured the District that the school is safe.

There is no evidence of an environmental situation or infectious cause. In addition, to help assist the District with assessing all aspects of this situation, it hired its own independent environmental expert to conduct a review of the findings and offer alternative approaches, if needed. This was done not because the District questioned the state medical professionals or federal agencies, but to help reassure the community.

There are also some who are attempting to marry the 1970 derailment to the school when in fact the plume has been shown as moving in the opposite direction some three miles away.   

The Le Roy community should take assurance that the Department of Health concluded extensive reviews of both the epidemiology and the clinical evaluations and found no evidence of environmental or infection as the cause of the students’ illness. An environmental exposure would affect many people.

The treating physicians ruled out PANDAS. The school was tested for Volatile Organic Compounds (including TCE) by an independent firm. The school is served by a public water system. The Gardasil vaccine was ruled out because many of the girls did not receive the vaccine. The Department of Environmental Conservation reaffirmed the evaluation that there is no evidence of environmental factors.

The District will certainly welcome input from outside experts if they choose to offer it in a professional and constructive manner. It will rely on its own expert as well as counsel from the Department of Health, DEC and EPA as to whether any further testing is deemed appropriate.  However, in the event that it is recommended, it will be done with a specific plan based upon all available information and accepted scientific protocols.

The District wants to be clear that it has confidence with respect to the conclusions of the Department of Health based upon its comprehensive review of this situation as well as the assessment of the physicians at the DENT Neurologic Institute. 

The Le Roy Central School District and the Le Roy community want what is best for the children in the schools. Unfortunately, the endless speculation without factual basis is creating an extreme level of anxiety and concern. Students are unable to focus on learning. The constant attention has had a negative impact on the recovery of some of the students who are directly affected, many who were improving and whose symptoms have now become exacerbated.

The District knows this has been an emotionally hard situation on the community and everyone hopes for the speedy recovery of its students.

Robert J. Eppolito, 29, of 61 Church St., Apt. #2, Le Roy, admitted in Genesee County Court today that he punched and kicked another person during a confrontation in Le Roy last September.

By pleading guilty to assault in the second degree, Eppolito faces a possible prison term of up to five years, with time being served concurrently on his sentence from a guilty plea for violation of probation.

As a second felony offender, Eppolito will serve at least three years in prison.

Sentencing was set for 9 a.m., April 23.

Eppolito admitted in court that he kicked the victim and broke the victim's nose and bruised his left eye.

While awaiting sentencing, Eppolito will be released under supervision of the probation department.

At 2:35 p.m., Bill Albert, representing the Le Roy Central School District, issued the following press release. It came more than two hours after a sometimes confrontational impromptu press conference with national and regional media (and one local news reporter), Albert and Superintendent Kim Cox (both pictured above).

This morning, without any prior notice to the District, camera crews from a number of media sources, including both national and local outlets, entered District property for the purpose of filming an unidentified individual taking soil samples.

It is appalling that whatever group or entity employing this individual, as well as the media outlets participating in this effort, chose to conduct themselves in this way -- which can only be characterized as grandstanding. Not only was this criminal activity which forced the District to call in local law enforcement to maintain the security of its property, it disrupted the District’s preparations for a weekend music event involving students from over twenty-two schools as well as other student activities.  No legitimate organization would function in this manner.

As previously indicated, the District is working in conjunction with local and state agencies relative to this matter. Based upon the results from testing already conducted at the District as well as review of other information from multiple sources, environmental factors have not been identified as a cause of the symptoms that have manifested in some students. Testing conducted with rogue samples is of no scientific value, as it is not conducted in accordance with scientific methodologies and safety protocols utilized by reputable environmental experts in all testing situations. In fact, such actions could hamper the coordinated effort already underway by the District in conjunction with environmental, health, and safety experts to address this matter. The District will continue to provide information with respect to these efforts as it becomes available. 

Local law enforcement will continue to monitor the security of the District’s property. 

Here's the background:

I arrived at district propety at 11:15 a.m. At the time, there were not even a dozen cars in the parking lot of the school. There were no students to be seen.

I could see a group of people, and recognize a boom mic, clear across the athletic fields, so I drove around to that side, which is a public park. Several members of national and regional media were at the location. 

The media and members of the Erin Brockovich team left the location and drove to a location on Route 5. Bob Bowcock wanted to gather well water samples from that location. When he was finished there, he wanted to drive back to the school because he was told an attorney would be there to let him know whether he could have access to the school grounds.

Shortly after the caravan arrived at the park, Albert and Cox arrived.

While the questioning was at times pointed and aggressive, it wasn't unprofessional.

Bowcock was told by Albert that he could walk the grounds, just like any other citizen in Le Roy, but could not take soil samples, and the media would not be allowed on the grounds. Albert said that while members of the media were citizens, they could not go on the property while acting in capacity as media, even though numerous Supreme Court cases have not drawn a distinction between a "person" and a "corporate entity" (most recently Citizens United) for the purpose of First Amendment rights.

School property is public property and public access cannot be denied so long as it does not disrupt the educational purpose of the campus.

The media was on site during non-school hours and there was no evidence of educational activity. To label the media presence as "criminal activity" is beyond ludicrous.

One additional note: The additional law enforcement was two overtime patrols from the Genesee County Sheriff's Office. The school district paid for the extra enforcement. The patrols will be in the area throughout Sunday.

An environmental specialist from Los Angeles in Le Roy on Saturday scoffed at studies used by the Le Roy Central School District to say there was no environmental cause for a tic outbreak among a group of students at the high school.

“In my opinion, that (the reports released by the district) wasn’t even close to science," said Robert W. Bowcock (top photo), an environmental investigator with Integrated Resource Management, based in Claremont, Calif.

Bowcock said he was in Le Roy at the request of Erin Brockovich, a famed environmental crusader, but "working for free" to try and help uncover the cause of the tic disorder.

As many as 15 students of the school reportedly suffer from tics and verbal outbursts similar to Tourette Syndrome.

At a Jan. 11 community meeting, district officials and the NYS Department of Health released reports on environmental studies conducted at the school by BOCES.

"Nobody has received any information that can be checked or tested," Bowcock said. "We’re not out here to invalidate anybody’s work or validate anybody’s work. We just want to see all of the information so we can help gain further knowledge."

The Brockovich team attempted to walk onto school district property around 11 a.m., Saturday, and were stopped by local law enforcement. They were told they didn't have the proper permits to gather soil samples on the property.

At around noon, William Albert, a public information specialist with the law firm Harris Beach, along with Kim Cox, superintendent of the school district, appeared at the public park adjacent school property to issue a statement (click here to read the statement delivered to media representatives at the site).

Albert initially said neither he nor Cox would answer questions, but wound up in a debate/discussion with media representatives about access to school grounds.

At the impromptu press conference, Cox characterized the Brockovich team's actions as unprofessional and Albert would later issue a press release labeling the media presence as unprofessional and "criminal."

"We’ve been working very closely with professionals across the state and across the country trying to keep the community as involved and up to date as possible," Cox said. "We’re disappointed about how this has unraveled today. We would have expected to be contacted ahead of time. The district was taken by surprise by this. There was no pre-arrangement. We would have expected that this would have taken place in a professional way."

Cox said if Bowcock and his team were allowed on school property to gather samples, the research would have lacked validity because they would have been gathered in an unprofessional manner.

"I've never been kept out of a public place in my history of environmental investigation," Bowcock said. "Usually, we’re welcome because entities want us to rule them in or rule them out, or give them information to help them deal with the problem."

Brockovich's team and the media were being kept off the property, Cox said, because it was a disruption to education of students.

At the time, there were fewer than a dozen cars in the school's parking lot and no students in sight.

"We would have welcomed the help if they had gone through the appropriate channels and contacted us instead of just showing up on a Saturday morning with camera crews," Cox said. "It's a bit of a grandstand. We would be happy to talk with those folks and coordinate it through the appropriate channels.

"Why would you show up on a Saturday morning with a camera crew without a conversation with the superintendent of the district if you were truly interested in helping us? This doesn’t feel like support."

When a parent pointed out that community residents walk on school grounds all the time, particularly using the track for exercise, Albert clarified that any citizen could walk on the grounds, but Bowcock could not take samples and the media could not tag along.

After walking the grounds, Bowcock said he did gain valuable information from the walk.

"I noticed things like, the public roadway drains onto the school property, or through school property," Bowcock said. "What that means to me is that the school property is not wholly intact. It is subject to intrusion from outside sources of water and perhaps outside sources of contamination that could come in onto the property, cause an event and evacuate from the property. Did that happen? I don’t know."

Bowcock said his goal for his Saturday visit to Le Roy was to gather water and soil samples and analyze them for any contaminants. He said there might be a 100 chemicals that could cause problems for students, but of most interest was trichloroethene (TCE).

A 1970 train derailment in Le Roy dumped approximately one ton of cyanide crystals and around 30,000 gallons of Trichloroethene (TCE) onto the ground, polluting soil and groundwater.

Bowcock said the TCE plume in Le Roy is the largest in the United States.

The EPA has considered the plume's movement to be mostly eastward, but Bowcock said a number of factors -- such as capping of wells, storm patterns and new wells opening to the east -- could influence the direction of the plume.

"All those different things could have caused a release of the TCE into the surface environment from the subsurface environment for a period of time and then it could have ceased," Bowcock said. "You just won’t know until you get out here to investigate."

He was careful to point out that he has no evidence to suggest any such change has actually taken place.

TCE is typically a carcinogen (it can cause cancer), but Bowcock said that depending on the amount of exposure, can cause neurological disorders.

Bowcock and his team spent the day traveling to various locations in the town and village, examining the topography and environment as well as gathering soil and water samples.

There were dozens and dozens of places in Le Roy that residents suggested through emails to Brockovich that Bowcock check, he said.

One of the key sites was the location of the 1970 train wreck (bottom six photos).

It's still a Superfund clean-up site, and Bowcock said he was shocked by the condition of the site (located on Gulf Road on the east side of the Town of Le Roy).

The site contains breached and leaking barrels of contaminated water and soil and "the berm and liner is pretty much gone."

"Unfortunately, and I’ll say it like it is, we found a remediation site that has housekeeping issues," Bowcock said. "It is pretty much a mess."

The real threat, Bowcock said, is to anybody with well water. The village residents and its businesses on municipal water have nothing to worry about.

It's slim odds, Bowcock indicted, that TCE is the cause of the tic symptoms in the girls, but local residents, he said, need to be aware that the government hasn't adequately addressed the 1970 spill.

"The good outcome from that is that the people of Le Roy realize that they have the largest TCE plume in the eastern United States under their community and the government has given them lip service for 40 years telling them 'we’ve cleaned it, we’ve cleaned it up,' " Bowcock said. "Frankly, I’m here to tell you, they haven’t done a darn thing."

Bowcock said the only thing that has really been removed was the railroad tracks -- which are worth money -- but the old bedding and ties are still on the site.  Near the entrance of the site are two piles of bedding stones. One is covered by a heavy plastic tarp, as if it might be contaminated, and the other -- complete with exposed railroad ties -- is uncovered.

In every discussion with media, Bowcock was careful to say there is no apparent environmental cause of the tics and that further testing needs to be done.

He said he and the team -- along with possibly Brockovich and "Dr. Drew" (Dr. David Drew Pinsky) -- in three or four weeks hope to do more specific and detailed testing of soil and water in the community and at the school.

"The one common factor for the students affected is the school," Bowcock said.

Bowcock said parents wouldn't even have asked the Brockovich team to come to Le Roy if government officials had been more forthcoming and transparent at a Jan. 11 community meeting about the tic outbreak.

"Since the fall they’ve been asking for answers and I think they anticipated they would receive something of substance (at the meeting)," Bowcock said. "They would have heard, 'This is what we’ve done. This is how we’ve tackled the problem.' I think they felt like they were paid lip service. It was like, we did some testing and here’s some air samples. They weren’t even scientists (the parents) and they could recognize the deficiencies of the reports."

FOOTNOTE: An interesting aside to the "Brockovich is coming to Genesee County" angle, some prankster called the the legendary Red Osier Restaurant in Stafford to convince staff she was heading there for dinner. At about 9:45 p.m., Friday, a person called Red Osier and identified himself as a member of Brockovich's security team. He said Brockovich would be arriving in five minutes. He said Brockovich required a private dining area and a Stoli martini. Staff had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the call, according to co-owner Michael Moore, so one of the empty dining rooms was prepared and the fire in the fireplace was lit. The chef stayed on duty, ready to prepare a meal for Brockovich. After nearly an hour of waiting, Moore sent the staff home. Bowcock confirmed Brockovich wasn't even in town and said she would never make such demands.

The search for a cause of a tic disorder in more than a dozen teenagers in Le Roy is moving toward a look at environmental causes.

The Democrat & Chronicle was the first to report that Erin Brockovich, Lois Gibbs and the Sierra Club are joining the investigation into what may have caused the tics, apprently not accepting the diagnosis of Dr. Laszlo Mechtler and others that the problem is "conversion disorder."

While other theories -- such as problems with vaccines -- have not been ruled out among those searching for other answers, the new environmental focus is getting a lot of play in the national media. Brockovich's interest has particularly drawn coverage.

On the vaccine front, Marcella Piper-Terry, contacted The Batavian today to offer her help.  Her site talks about "vaccine injury," and not just from the HPV vaccines.

We wanted to drill down a little more on the HPV vaccine issue and PANDAS, which is a strep-related neuropsychiatric disorder, so we called the NYS Department of Health and requested an interview with Dr. Gregory Young.

Jeffrey Hammonds, spokesman for the department, returned the call. 

He said HPV vaccines were ruled out because a majority of the original 12 girls have not been vaccinated.

He said he would get back to us on the details of why PANDAS was ruled out.

As for Brockovich, there are rumors that she will be in Le Roy either Saturday or Sunday.

The Southern California resident first gained fame as a paralegal (for the Westlake Village law firm of Masry & Vititoe) who helped initiate a lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (She lives in Agoura Hills, a tony community just over the Ventura County line in Northwest Los Angeles County. Ronald Reagan once owned a ranch there.)

The success of the suit, which resulted in the largest toxic tort injury settlement in U.S. history, eventually led to a popular movie titled "Erin Brockovich" with Julie Roberts in the lead role. (Roberts won an Oscar for Best Actress and the film, released in 2000, was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director.)

In some circles, Brockovich is a bit controversial. Journalist Michael Fumento has been especially critical of Brockovich since 2000.

In 2003, Time Magazine published Erin Brockovich's Junk Science:

The suit, on behalf of Hinkley, California residents, focused on an ionized form of chromium called chromium-6, a rust inhibitor that was carelessly dumped by the giant utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, and seeped into the groundwater used by the town's residents. In bringing suit against PG&E, Brockovich's law firm charged that chromium-6, in addition to causing cancer, was responsible for disorders ranging from rashes and nosebleeds to lupus, miscarriage and Crohn's Disease in 600 of Hinkley's residents. The case eventually went to arbitration, and a panel of judges awarded residents a settlement of $333 million dollars, 40 percent of which went to the lawyers. For her efforts Brockovich received a two million dollar bonus.

And what are the facts? There is no doubt that PG&E irresponsibly dumped chromium-6, and that the substance is a carcinogen. When inhaled regularly over long periods of time, it can cause cancer of the lung and the septum. But current studies show that, ingested in the trace amount found in Hinkley's water, or in food, it's harmless. According to a 1998 Environmental Protection Agency report on chromium-6, "No data were located in the available literature that suggested that it is carcinogenic by the oral route of exposure."

According to the D&C, the environmental investigators -- including Gibbs of Love Canal fame -- and the Sierra Club will be looking at gas wells and alleged toxic dumping at the Le Roy school site.

Five natural gas wells owned by the LeRoy school district ring the junior/senior high school building, which opened in 2003. The wells have undergone the controversial procedure known as hydraulic fracturing, state environmental officials said. About 25 Western New York school districts own gas wells, though none have more active wells than Le Roy.

"We believe that it would be premature to draw any correlation between these tragic and unexplained illnesses and the gas wells on the school's playing fields," said Roger Downs of the Sierra Club's Atlantic Chapter. "But we have seen no evidence that these wells were adequately considered by the Department of Health as potential contributing factors to the illnesses in the initial investigation."

...

Rumors persist that the school or ground sit atop rock and soil trucked in from a part of Le Roy still suffering the after-effects of a huge spill of the toxic solvent trichloroethylene in a 1970 train derailment.

Two pharmaceutical companies that make HPV vaccine have hired Dr. Laszlo Mechtler in the past as a speaker, paying him more than $150,000 in fees in 2009 through 2011, according to a ProPublica database.

Mechtler is the neurologist who reportedly diagnosed 11 teenage girls in Le Roy who have been displaying tics and verbal outbursts with "conversion disorder."

State public health officials relied, at least in part, on Mechtler's diagnosis to rule out vaccines for the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus as a cause.

The HPV vaccines are known as Gardasil and Cervarix, manufactured by Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline.

While tics and verbal outbursts are not listed on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website as a possible side effect of either drug, the drugs have been known to cause serious health issues. According to WebMD, the vaccines have been tied to rare cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, neurological disoder that causes weakness.

Several observers of the Le Roy situation have suggested HPV vaccine as a possible cause, but at a public meeting in Le Roy Jan. 11, Dr. Gregory Young said HPV had been ruled out as a cause.

In a search of Google for "tics gardasil cervarix," pretty much all the results tie the outbreak in Le Roy to the drugs, but actual evidence of the drugs being tied to such an outcome is hard to find.

Mechtler was later interviewed by NBC and identified himself as the doctor who examined 11 of the girls and diagnosed them with conversion disorder, even going so far in another interview to blame 9/11 terror alerts for causing stress in the girls.

According to Propublica -- a nonprofit investigative journalism organization -- Mechtler received the following payments from Glaxo and Merck:

• $62,400 in speaking fees in 2009 from Merck
• $75,200 in speaking fees in 2010 from Glaxo
• $19,819 for research from Glaxo in 2010
• Another $10,000 from Glaxo in 2011

A one-vehicle accident is reported on the Thruway with one occupant entrapped and possibly unconscious.

Mercy Flight is on standby.

The accident is in the area of mile marker 383.6 in the eastbound lane.

Le Roy fire and ambulance dispatched.

UPDATE 1:09 p.m.: A dispatcher informed the Le Roy chief that he spoke with somebody in the toll booth center who said the Thruway Authority did not want Mercy Flight dispatched. The dispatcher said he informed the person that it was the fire chief's call.

UPDATE 1:14 p.m.: The victim is out of the car and with State Troopers on scene. The car is well off the road and on its side. Mercy Flight can stand down.

UPDATE 1:39 p.m.: Le Roy Ambulance Service is headed to Strong Memorial Hospital with two patients on board. Le Roy fire crews are back in service.

WGRZ, Buffalo, is reporting that there are now 15 cases in Le Roy of teens with tic symptoms, including a boy. Also, the station interviews a doctor who treated a similar case in North Carolina a decade ago. His diagnosis: conversion disorder.

An Albany television station is reporting that two girls have developed tics and verbal outbursts and linking the report to the 12 girls in Le Roy who have suffered similar symptoms.

As for a possible connection to the cases in Western, NY, both girls did eat at a restaurant in Le Roy this summer.

"Maybe she had been carrying something that she brought with her to Le Roy," says Nicholson.

The piece on the girls describes joint pain along with the tics and verbal outbursts. One girl was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, though her mother doesn't seem to accept the diagnosis.

Meanwhile, The Week, a British publication quotes Dr. Lazlo Mechtler, the neurologist who has reportedly examined 11 of the 12 girls from Le Roy, as blaming the outbreak locally on terror alerts.

“Ever since 9/11, Americans have been subjected to warnings of orange alert and red alert, and, unlike Israelis for instance, they are not culturally used to it,” says Mechtler. “What has happened to these girls is the result of Americans being made to live in fear. We are going to see more of these outbreaks.”

According to the article, Mechtler has not examined Thera Sanchez, whom the article says was the first Le Roy girl to exhibit symptoms. But in her Today Show appearance, Sanchez said she was in treatment.

At the community meeting Jan. 11 in Le Roy, the mother of the reported 12th girl said she hadn't been to treatment yet because she was the last of the girls to develop symptoms.

In the past couple of weeks, we've received emails from people all over the United States with their own theories and suggestions. It would be a time-consuming task to chase down every theory and get response from officials, and, as we know, there's only so much officials can, or are willing, to say.

After the jump (click the headline to read the whole thing) are three of the emails we've received.

From Susan Walker:

Here is what I hope will be helpful information for the girls afflicted with the strange tics and Tourette-like problems in New York. I’ll try to keep this short!

Our grandson was afflicted with Tourette-type tics along with accompanying nervousness and difficulty sleeping quite suddenly at the age of about 7 years. It was heartbreaking to see him struggle with it. For a year or so he was treated with various medicines all of which left him lethargic but not improved. Our daughter asked me to research anything I could find to help him so I embarked upon a reading and Internet frenzy for information.

The only thing I found, aside from medicines he had already tried or things that seemed worse than the problem, was a fair amount of anecdotal evidence, which was first noted in a book by Mitzi Waltz about Tourettes Syndrome. She reported that a number of boys had found  great relief from the symptoms by taking grape seed. I passed this information to my daughter after researching grape seed and finding it to be very high in antioxidants and otherwise harmless.

To make a longer story short, our grandson showed marked improvement in just a couple of weeks and he felt much “better inside” as he described it, after taking 1 mg. per pound of body weight twice per day of grape seed extract in pill form. Within a month or two he had no symptoms at all and was able to sleep much better. He is now 18 years old and has been tic free all these years. He still takes grape seed.

I have kept myself open for any articles or info over the years which might explain this phenomenon and have run across a few things which suggest to me that perhaps the area of the brain which is involved in causing tics and related symptoms can be affected in some susceptible people by a sort of autoimmune response to oxidants which build up in their blood either from outside causes or perhaps from their own metabolic peculiarities.

In any case, grape seed has been a lifesaver for our grandson and there are numbers of mothers and sons who report similar experiences. It’s worth a shot and I’d surely try it if my daughter was one of  these cases.

From Denise Grubbs, RN:

I am founder and director of PPARS: PANDAS-PITAND Awareness & Research Support and I am also a Registered Nurse. I just registered to leave a comment as I am very concerned about the underlying cause of tics in these children.

I wonder if they have tested the girls for strep, myco p, Lyme and related diseases. I hope if they used titers such as ASO & Anti-DNase only that they did not use this to rule out this condition as we know that some kids never elevate titers. Inability to elevate titers does not rule out PANDAS-PITAND -- it only means we have to look harder before it can be ruled out as a cause.

Another potential cause to consider is the GARDASIL vaccine. Because only girls are reported and the age, we have to consider this as a potential cause.

There are physicians who are knowledgeable about this condition and could fully evaluate the students to determine if it can be ruled out or not.  Treatment can bring healing, but it is important to catch it early.

How can we reach someone who can fully evaluate to help these girls?

Website: http://www.pandas-pitandawareness.org/Home.php
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/PANDAS-PITAND-PANS-Awareness-Ribbon-Research-Support/104784939604627
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From Laurie Endicott Thomas, www.gorillaprotein.com

I was greatly disturbed to see the girls with Tourette syndrome from Le Roy on the TODAY show and highly annoyed to see a neurologist attribute the problem to "conversion disorder." I have written an article that will be published soon in the medical journal Medical Hypotheses that argues that doctors should never make the diagnosis of conversion disorder. Doctors make a diagnosis of conversion disorder when they can't find the real cause of the problem. It's a cop-out and shouldn't be permitted.

Chances are good that the girls' problems are due to a simple problem with the temporomandibular joint, which is the hinge joint where the jawbone attaches to the skull. If the jaw is not in the correct position, it can irritate one of the cranial nerves, thus setting up a reflex arc that causes the movement problems.

In many cases, the problem can be solved simply and without drugs by giving the girl a dental appliance that holds her jaw in the correct position. The girl might be able to get longer-lasting relief from a simple surgical procedure to take a "tuck" in the articular disk in the temporomandibular joint, to put it back where it is supposed to be.

Here's an article from the Journal of Craniomandibular Practice about the problem.

http://www.tmjstack.com/casereport.pdf

Here's video of a patient with gait problems and all of the typical Tourette symptoms. Watch how rapidly the problems go away when the woman gets a dental appliance to reposition her jaw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W7qBbjbRZ8

I wouldn't be surprised to find that all of the girls in Le Roy had the same dentist or orthodontist. That could account for why you've had an outbreak of Tourette syndrome in girls locally.

The Batavian has also received phone calls suggesting lead poisoning, mercury poisoning and telecommunication radiation.

Gary A. Goodwin, 51, of Hamlin, is charged with DWI and driving with a BAC of .08. Goodwin was reportedly involved in a motor vehicle accident at 11:12 p.m., Jan. 21, on Cockram Road, Town of Byron. The accident was investigated by Deputy Brad Mazur.

Rene Peres Roblero, 46, of McGregor Road, Corfu, is charged with DWI, moving from lane unsafely, operation by an unlicensed driver, operating without insurance. Roblero was arrested following the report of a one-vehicle accident at 11:24 p.m., Jan. 17, on Richley Road, Darien. He was jailed on $1,000 bail.

Debra G. Fields, 43, of 18 South St., Le Roy, is charged with unlawful dealing with a child, 1st. Field is accused of hosting an underage drinking party at her residence.

Uriah Ian-Charles Smoke, 27, of Bloomingdale Road, Tonawanda Indian Reservation, is charged with reckless endangerment, 2nd, and criminal mischief, 4th. Smoke was arrested on a warrant and jailed on $2,000 bail or $4,000 bond.

A two-car accident is reported in Le Roy on East Bethany -- Le Roy Road, between Munson Street and Cole Road.

No word on injuries. Le Roy Fire Department is responding.

UPDATE 12:06 p.m.: Le Roy Ambulance Service is on scene. Responders are told to come in non-emergency mode. The accident involved a utility pole.

UPDATE 12:10 p.m.: Traffic is being slowed to one lane, but the scene will clear very soon.

UPDATE 12:14 p.m.: Le Roy assignment is back in service.