NEW MARTINSVILLE ­– The battle over closing Paden City High School’s doors for the 2024-25 school year may not be over, depending on what — if anything — the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals says about it.

Wetzel County Schools Superintendent Cassie Porter announced Monday morning she would file an emergency appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to reverse Wetzel County Circuit Judge C. Richard Wilson’s decision to reopen Paden City High School.

Wilson last week ordered PCHS to open again after Porter had closed the school in June for health and safety reasons. The school sits on a U.S. Department of Environmental Protection Superfund site and above a plume of PCE, aka tetrachloroethylene. The EPA has said there are “allowable levels” of the chemical in the air.

In a hearing two weeks ago, it was divulged that the chemical benzine was also detected at the school.

Porter said that, if Wilson’s order isn’t immediately stayed, students and staff will report to PCHS while the appeal is pending.

“I have reviewed the order of the Circuit Court of Wetzel County reversing the temporary closure of Paden City High School,” Porter said in the statement. “I trust the process; however, I am disappointed in the court’s decision which requires school children to attend a school in which benzene and other dangerous chemicals have been detected in the air. I have filed an emergency appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and requested that our state’s highest court take swift action to stay and reverse the circuit court’s order.

“My highest duty is to provide all students with a safe learning environment,” she added. “In ordering the temporary closure of Paden City High School, I fulfilled that duty with the guidance and support from the West Virginia Department of Education.”

In a July 25 hearing that lasted close to seven hours, attorneys Teresa Toriseva and Josh Miller — who represent a group of Paden City families fighting the closure — successfully argued that the levels of the chemicals around the school did not rise to the level of closing the school’s doors. Porter and her attorney, Ken Webb of Charleston firm Bowles Rice, argued that the closure was justified and that the chemical levels were high enough to raise safety and health issues.

Wilson issued his order last Wednesday siding with the Paden City families and their attorneys.

In a texted statement, Toriseva stood by Wilson’s decision.

“Fear-mongering is not science,” she said. “A county superintendent’s authority to close a school is specifically granted in West Virginia Code. The Wetzel County Superintendent exceeded her statutory authority by closing PCHS in two ways: the closure was not temporary and there was no current detrimental condition created for the students.

“No government entity, including the EPA and the CDC, has indicated any unsafe condition exists at PCHS,” she continued. “Judge Wilson agreed with the Plaintiffs and correctly ruled the Superintendent wrongfully closed the school.”