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Photos by Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

William Byrd High School parent Angela Bradshaw holds up a sign that reads "We Want Answers" in front of the school on Monday morning. Several female students have reported twitching in their arms in recent weeks.  Bradshaw, who was joined by her children and couple dozen students, protested the school for not releasing information about the situation.

William Byrd High School administrator Otis Dowdy (left) addresses a couple dozen students who protested outside the school Monday morning asking for more information on a situation in which several female students at the school have reported twitching in their arms.

About 30 William Byrd High School students refused to go to class today in protest of the strange twitching symptoms that have affected about a handful of their classmates in recent weeks.

Roanoke County school officials, meanwhile, have scheduled a community meeting for 6 tonight in the William Byrd auditorium to discuss the situation. School leaders met today with officials from the Virginia Department of Health and two environmental consulting firms over testing that has been conducted at William Byrd.

“As of today, we have found nothing environmentally that is above acceptable federal exposure levels that would relate to the symptoms that have been reported,” said Deb Oyler of Environmental Directions, Inc. Additionally the school system is working with ECS Mid-Atlantic.  “We conducted air and water quality tests and will be conducting further tests on various surfaces in the school,” said Derek Cooper of ECS Mid-Atlantic.

 “At this time, there is no apparent public health hazard and no evidence of communicability,“ said Dr. Stephanie Harper, Director of the Alleghany and Roanoke City Health Districts.

“We will continue to work with the Health Department to investigate the cause of these symptoms,” said Roanoke County Public Schools Superintendent Lorraine Lange.  “As we learn more information, we will be communicating this with parents and the public.  If we were more specific about the symptoms these individuals are experiencing, we would identify who those individuals are.  We have to respect their privacy,” Lange said.

This morning, the protesters stood outside the school's main entrance then, after the class bell had rung, were told to either go to class or leave the property. They then walked across the street and stood in a grassy field speaking to television crews for a few minutes before getting in cars and driving away.

So far, school officials have said they don't know what is causing the strange twitching. The Roanoke County school, which has an enrollment of approximately 1,200 students, has undergone environmental tests over the past few weeks.

Protesters said they were afraid to spend time in a building where students had gotten sick, especially if no one has been able to tell them what the problem is.

"We need answers and we want them now," said Joe Bradshaw, a sophomore, who helped organize the protest over the weekend through a series of postings on the online social networking site MySpace.

Joe's mother, Angela Bradshaw also attended the protest. She said the school system should have moved classes out of the William Byrd High School building into an alternate location until authorities figure out what the problem is.