Mercury spill leads to lawsuit

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- The principal of a Minnesota charter school is the target of a federal lawsuit over a toxic spill on the campus, it was reported Thursday.

The St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press said Judi Ingison, principal of Eagle Ridge Academy, is accused of misleading officials about the storage of mercury involved in a spill in October.

The suit, filed in federal court, claims Ingison told officials that the spill had been in a locked storage room. But a former teacher says otherwise, the newspaper said.

Chemistry instructor Susan Reid reported the Oct. 10 mercury spill. She reportedly told Eden Prairie police a staff member had brought in a container of mercury from a broken thermometer and, when she went to place it with other mercury in the unlocked cabinet, she discovered a spill.

Reid resigned from the school Dec. 23. In a letter to the board dated Jan. 3, she cited the mercury spill. She claimed that almost two months before the spill, she told Ingison that the keys for the chemical storage cabinet were missing, the newspaper reported.