Lead in school water: Portland officials didn't warn teachers, students of known contamination
Source: The Oregonian
Portland Superintendent Carole Smith apologized Friday for allowing students and teachers at two schools continue to drink tainted water after tests showed unsafe levels of lead.
Portland Public Schools spokeswoman Christine Miles told The Oregonian Thursday that school employees "immediately" cut off access to water from drinking fountains and sinks at Rose City Park and Creston schools when water samples turned up unacceptably high levels of lead.
But Smith acknowledged Friday that workers did not turn off water from fixtures shown to be emitting lead or warn students, employees and visitors not to drink it. Instead, they took steps to repair and replace plumbing but allowed the tainted water to flow as usual in the meantime.
At Rose City Park, that meant students were free to drink lead-laced water for eight school days after district officials knew about the toxic results.
Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2016/05/lead_in_school_water_portland.html#incart_big-photo
This Superintendent has been deceitful to parents from the word go. It is time for her to go.
McKim
(2,412 posts)Wow, this is after four decades of education cuts here in Oregon. When I taught at a working famililes neighborhood school in the 1990s I would turn on the faucet in Sept. and the water looked like red chocolate milk for about two hours! This is disgusting.
But we gotta build that infrastructure in Iraq, and those new bases in Argentina, folks.