Upset over discovery of lead in water at Oakland schools – NBC Bay Area

Teachers, parents and students at several Oakland schools continue to complain about the lack of drinking water on campus after the Oakland Unified School District announced in August that it had detected dangerous levels of lead.

Those affected went to City Hall on Monday where they aired their grievances just before a special meeting with councilors and the district’s board of education.

“Angry with the district because our school water was contaminated with lead and my daughter and grandson drank that water,” said Marina Muñoz, the family’s mother.

The district announced the contamination at multiple school sites last month, but had been aware since April.

“This was a problem that pissed us off because it’s not fair that they identified the problem and that they didn’t communicate well with us. The board that we knew until August, they are investigating and there will be discipline,” explained Sam Davis, president of the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education.

Davis said they found lead in about 10 percent of the 40 schools tested.

“So what they did right away was shut the fountain down and replace it, and we’re also ordering more clean water faucets for all the schools in Oakland,” Davis said.

Davis described the problem as environmental racism, as it primarily affects low-income Latino or African-American communities.

“We know that the progress that has happened only happened because there were parents in West Oakland who came together and made some noise. They said this is not right,” said Gustavo Gutierrez, Communities for a Better Environment.

City leadership said they agree this is a crisis they need to address as soon as possible, but some explained they would need the support of the federal government to bring about the change many seek.

Meanwhile, Councilman Noel Gallo expressed that there is not much the city can do.

“We have other emergencies and actually Oakland Public Schools is part of the state of California and Alameda County,” Gallo said.

But he noted there is half a million dollars from Alameda County that could be available.

“Tomorrow I’m going to meet with them and Alameda County to see if we can start helping those schools,” Gallo said.

Organizers are calling on the district to conduct annual pollutant surveys of all campuses, provide blood tests to students and teachers and repair infrastructure.

At Monday’s meeting, city leaders voted to continue to address the issue going forward, exploring options for financial support.

For its part, the school district assured in a statement that in addition to testing the water and repairing the faucets, they have installed filtered faucets and ordered 14,000 reusable bottles to distribute to students.