Is black mold exposure sufficient grounds for an extension?

For the uninitiated, black mold is a type of fungus that grows on drywall and wood. It can appear as black spots, stains, or clusters of discoloration on a surface. In the case of my suite’s bathroom, it appeared as all three.

When we first moved in, there was a bit of water damage on the wall, but we weren’t that concerned. It’s an old building, after all, and the ventilation in the bathroom isn’t great. But within the first month or so of the semester, things started to get worse. It’s actually quite hard to notice how bad something is when it’s worsening gradually. In the toad-being-boiled-in-water metaphor, we were the toad and the boiling water was the constellation of moldy spots all over our bathroom wall.

The thing is, I usually don’t have my glasses on when I’m in the bathroom to shower, so I simply couldn’t see the wall in detail. The price I pay for being near-sighted. Or maybe I was subconsciously avoiding looking at the wall, because deep in my heart I knew what I would see.

Either way, things didn’t come to a head until water started leaking from our bathroom ceiling a few weeks ago. Have you ever felt a drop of cold water hit your neck while brushing your teeth? I do not recommend. I immediately became worried that the ceiling was going to collapse (as I have heard many-a-rumor of dorm ceiling collapses at this college before), so I called Facilities the very next morning. The speed with which they showed up at our suite was reassuring but also somewhat disturbing. In addition to informing us that the wall and ceiling needed to be replastered, they pointed out the extent of the black mold that my suitemates and I hadn’t noticed. Or rather, I saw the Facilities employee staring at the wall and asked if it was black mold. The answer was yes.

Maybe all of us were experiencing brain fog due to mold exposure, but my suitemates and I had not realized just how much black mold was in this bathroom. After Facilities left, we gathered in the bathroom and spent at least 15 minutes pointing out the mold to each other. Luckily, one of my suitemates had taken a photo of the wall at the beginning of the semester to document the water damage, so we had a point of comparison. The mold had indeed gotten much worse since September.

Over the past week, our wall has been replastered, and our bathroom has been visited by Facilities many times. And yet, I still can’t go into the bathroom without immediately spotting a few dark spots, a few stains, that might be black mold. Maybe it’s paranoia caused by brain fog caused by mold exposure, but I’m 99% sure there’s still black mold in there. It’s probably not enough to cause any harm (though I’m no mold expert), but I have an impending sense that it will continue to get worse.

Despite this being a Hate Letter, I’m not actually that upset about this whole situation. Most of the mold was removed a few days after we reported it, and besides—nothing helps a suite group chat thrive like daily texts about our fucked-up mold-covered wall. This is a more general Hate Letter to the black mold itself. Dear black mold: Please leave my bathroom. It’s not you, it’s me. Actually, it’s definitely you. You’re gross, you’re everywhere, and if you stay, I’ll get stuck with perpetual allergies, which would be very inconvenient during finals. Go find another bathroom to live. Actually, don’t.

Moldy wall via Author