You truly can’t make this up.
Barack Obama Elementary School in Richmond, VA is indefinitely closing down after being badly neglected.
This comes after reports of mold and rodents in the school.
Sounds a whole lot like its namesake’s presidency, doesn’t it?
Here are the details:
Barack Obama Elementary School in Richmond has been closed indefinitely after mold was found throughout the building, including on laptops stored over the summer.
The superintendent sent everyone home Monday so crews can reclean and retest every room.
School was supposed to…
pic.twitter.com/l7IzEY0UXJ
— NewsForce (@Newsforce)
August 24, 2026
Barack Obama Elementary School in Richmond has been closed indefinitely after mold was found throughout the building, including on laptops stored over the summer.
The superintendent sent everyone home Monday so crews can reclean and retest every room.
School was supposed to start Tuesday, and officials hope students can return by August 31.
IT’S OFFICIAL: MOLD has forced Barack Hussein Obama Elementary School to indefinitely shutter its doors in Virginia
There were also major reports of rodents.
pic.twitter.com/bcfKSQbMh6
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh)
August 24, 2026
Mold was discovered on laptops and music equipment at the school just one day before it was set to re-open after summer break.
Hopefully, the mold issue can be resolved by the end of the month.
But, as anyone who has dealt with mold will know, it can really be a nasty thing.
It’s certainly not something you want to risk in a school environment, as mold can make people very sick if it gets into the lungs.
In the meantime, students will be re-located to a nearby school.
The Richmonder reported further:
Ali Faruk, Richmond School Board representative for the 3rd District, confirmed to The Richmonder Monday morning that mold was found on the items in the auditorium while parents and staff were volunteering to help teachers set up their classrooms. The auditorium is located on the second floor of the building.
An hour after The Richmonder posted this story, RPS announced that the school will be closed, with a target opening date of Monday, Aug. 31.
“In the interim, we are working to get Clark Springs Elementary School ready as a temporary space,” Superintendent Jason Kamras wrote in an email to parents. “We’ll have more information about that by tomorrow. For now, school is closed on Tuesday.”
More information will be provided at a 5:30 p.m. town hall meeting at Francis McClenney Elementary.
He said that it is common to see some surface mold when mold remediation is conducted, especially in an old school like Barack Obama Elementary.
“The fact that there was some surface mold is not great, but laptops are something we can quickly clean off and in the meantime bring new laptops,” he said, speaking by phone from inside the building.
A source familiar with the matter first shared the issue with The Richmonder.
“Right now, it’s a very active environment in terms of figuring out what needs to be done with this stuff,” the source said Monday morning. “We’re talking about over 300 laptops and thousands of dollars in equipment.”
On Sunday evening, Kamras told families air quality tests came back clear for the entire building excluding the art room.
“Our contractor believes this is because the art room is filled with porous materials like construction paper, which can hold onto mold spores for quite a while,” he wrote.
In addition to the mold, administrators found rodents at the school.
Officials say that an exterminator was sent in last week to take care of that problem.
Still,
WTVR reports that this is not the first time Obama Elementary has had mold issues:
Samieh said it is not the first time there have been mold issues at the school, with issues during the 2023-24 school year. She said seeing this happen again makes her feel like Obama Elementary is not as a priority as other schools for RPS like Fox or Holton. Several parents told CBS 6 they support the Obama leadership, but have less faith in the central office.
“That’s what would happen for other schools. Our demographic is not the school where I’m seeing that approach, and it just speaks to a systemic level of how we are not as important,” said Samieh.
But Faruk said that the administration has very responsive and that Kamras and facility staff were in Obama with him as the new mold was discovered and making plans on how to address it.
Barack Obama Elementary didn’t always have that name.
It used to be called J.E.B Stuart Elementary, after a Confederate cavalry general.
But, the name was changed in 2018 to get rid of the Confederate association at a school with an over 90% student body.
Officials felt that students could relate to Barack Obama better as a role model.
Fast forward to now, 8 years later, and the condition of the school is certainly living up to its name!
Take a look at some of these hilarious responses from folks on X:
Moldy building, moldy name, moldy legacy. Perfect match for Hussein.
— S@manta
(@followinreds)
August 24, 2026
Of course it’s full of rodents . Nothing less when it’s named after the biggest rat of them all .
— Joseph Bevans (@JosephBevans4)
August 24, 2026
They all are rodents that why they are called DemocRATS.
— Tim Polston (@TimPolston8696)
August 24, 2026
Very reminiscent of his Presidency
pic.twitter.com/tPmrWn5Hg7
— Shawn (@ArcanesDreamer)
August 24, 2026
Your thoughts?
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
