Lead in our Delaware Schools Public Forum Recap
Another consequence of Covid school shutdowns and incompetent leadership
Monday evening, a public forum was held to discuss the dangerous levels of lead detected in Delaware’s public school drinking water, and the reckless mishandling by the state. Just as the education loss caused by the Covid school shutdowns, they blame the lead in the water on the Covid school shutdowns as well! And just like the poor academic proficiency results1, this has been a problem well before the Covid upended our lives - it just took the Covid to bring it all to the surface.
For an entire year, school staff and families had no idea about the dangerously elevated lead levels in water
The EPA has now directed schools to shut off taps with elevated lead levels
The list below is of schools with at least one site that failed the 7.5ppb lead level threshold (7.5x higher than the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommended 1ppb)
Brandywine: Brandywine HS, Concord HS, Forewood ES, Lancashire ES, Mount Pleasant HS,
Caesar Rodney: Dover AFB MS, Caesar Rodney HS
Cape Henlopen: Milton ES, Shields ES
Capital: Fairview ES, Kent County ILC, Towne Point ES, William Henry MS
Christina: Christiana HS, Gauger Cobbs MS, Glasgow HS, Newark HS, Wilson ES
Colonial: Castle Hills ES, Gunning Beford MS, Leach, Wilbur ES, McCullough MS, Wallin School, William Penn HS
Indian River: Garver Educational, Ingram Pond Outdoor, Clayton HS, Long Neck ES, Millsboro MS, Showell ES
Lake Forest: Lake Forest North ES, Laurel HS
New Castle County Vo-Tech: Delcastle HS, Marshallton
Red Clay: A.I. duPont HS, A.I. duPont MS, Baltz ES, Cab Calloway, H.B. duPont MS, Groves HS, Skyline MS, Warner ES
Seaford: Seaford MS
Smyrna: Bassett, Smyrna MS
Woodbridge: Woodbridge HS
Charters: Friere Charter
State admits communication failure after 47 schools found with elevated drinking water lead levels2
CLIP: Lack of maintenance is partially to blame
What permanent harm may have been done to the children due to the state’s negligence? There is no safe level of Lead.
Video from King county’s “Facts About Lead”3
Delaware officials admit to 'missteps' in not communicating high lead levels in school water supplies4
Since the Delaware Department of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Services, began testing for the presence of lead in water sources at schools in late 2020, the program's rollout has been rife with issues. They ranged from failing to release results to the public in a timely fashion to ignoring federal guidelines for testing and communication required with receiving the $204,000 federal grant to perform testing.
State health and education officials tried to make public schools their scapegoat, but the people were not having it. Ultimately, Delaware officials admit rules were not followed.
One lead-free advocate expressed concern that one school district sent a letter to families saying the one water source that had elevated lead levels was from a non-potable source ‒ a kitchen prep sink ‒ which Hanes noted is considered a drinking water source. Another advocate said one classroom’s sink came back with elevated levels of lead, but the tap hasn't been turned off.
"I think some of this had to be intentional," Matthews said [Vice president of Red Clay school board] "The government was trying to cover up the fact they had the results and started pointing fingers and blaming people all while denying us the funding to be able to address the issues."
CLIP: [Wilson Elementary] Mother's child tests positive for Lead - two more children awaiting blood results. Mother says the fountains were not closed until the day of this forum.
CLIP: Caller calls out the state's incompetency and pathetic passing of blame to the school districts
Learn more at Lead-Free Delaware Blog5
You can watch the official recorded livestream as presented by the Delaware State Senate Democratic Caucus here.6
Other notable local articles:
Delaware parents express rage at how school lead testing was carried out, not communicated7
What level is acceptable? Lead found in water at most Delaware schools8
View my original related posts below:
