School cleaners are the subject of disciplinary action after more sewage was discovered at Carnoustie High School on Friday.
Lessons at the school were disrupted on Thursday after a burst pipe inside the building caused raw sewage to run down the walls and along corridors.
Angus Council assured parents that the school was “open as normal” on Friday after a “deep clean” throughout Thursday evening.
However, more sewage waste was discovered behind school lockers on Friday.
It has emerged that some cleaners from Tayside Contracts refused to clean the mess and are now going through the company’s disciplinaryprocess.
Iain Waddell, managing director of TaysideContracts, said all cleaning instructions had followed the company’s safe workingarrangements with cleaners provided with face masks and disposable shoe covers.
He said some of his staff had refused to carry out a “legitimate instruction”.
Angus Council subsequently replaced some of the lockers which had “splash marks”.
Parents are angry at how the school responded to the crisis they weren’t informed about the problem until later inthe day.
Children stayed at home in droves after lunchtime due to the smell.
The issue also meant the school wasunable to serve lunch. Children were given money to buy lunch in town even though some did not have parental permission to leave school grounds.
Mr Waddell explained his company’s part in the clean-up operation.
He said: “We did the low level cleaning on Thursday afternoon and wesub-contracted the high level cleaning.
“On Friday we discovered there was more sewage down the back of lockers that hadn’t been picked up.
“We have a safe working arrangement which covers how we clean up spillages of blood or excrement.
“Cleaners were provided with face masks, disposable shoe covers and everything they needed under the safe working arrangement.
“Our staff were instructed to carry out the same cleaning they had done quitehappily on Thursday.
“Two of them did this without anyproblem. There were some others that just refused to do it.
“I don’t know why and we will deal with this through our normal disciplinaryprocess. They were given a legitimateinstruction and they refused to do it.
“We have to find out what the reasons were and take it from there.”
Many parents left their children at home on Friday after concerns about their safety.
An Angus Council spokeswoman said the waste was picked up during further checks on Friday.
She said: “The lockers were cleaned as part of the deep clean during Thursday night. Environmental health officers visited the school and confirmed that this had been carried out to a sufficient standard.
“On Friday the lockers were pulled out for additional checks.They were not awash with sewage, but there was some dirt and grime and further cleaning took place.
“Some lockers had splash marks and these were replaced as the school had some spare and for peace of mind.”