OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — Oakland public schools are responding to what they are calling a crisis surrounding the drinking water in nearly two dozen schools in the district. Elevated levels of lead have been found in the water at school campuses.
“We want more transparency. We demand more transparency,” said Stuart Loebl.
Loebl is a 6th grade teacher at Frick United Academy of Language in East Oakland.
Most of that public school’s drinking fountains are now off limits, with signs saying “do not drink the water.”
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Parents and staff at Frick got a letter from the school district last week saying water testing “found five fixtures at your school with lead levels above 5 parts per billion.” That is three times higher than the EPA’s recommended threshold.
ABC7 News obtained the water testing report dated April 2024. Loebl is asking what took so long to inform parents and staff of the findings.
“The lead was detected in a report that was available for release in April. Students have been going to that school, summer school, included drinking that water, which is completely unacceptable and infuriating,” Loebl said.
District officials say Frick is one of 22 OUSD campuses where elevated lead levels have been found. Parents and teachers vented their frustrations at last week’s school board meeting.
“We are demanding safe drinking water for our students, transparency,” said Frick Academy Counselor Catherine Cotter.
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“This is a real crisis. We’re taking it very seriously,” said Oakland School Board President Sam Davis.
Davis says communication with schools needs to be better. He says the district has been aggressive in testing water since 2017 and is now taking steps to fix the problem.
“We need to make sure there’s testing available to families, to find out if they were exposed to lead, and we need to invest in remediating the issue,” Davis said.
The district says new water filters and pipes will be installed at campuses and will be tested again to comply with safety standards.
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Cornell Barnard: “Do you believe these schools are safe for teachers and kids?”
Davis: “We need to make them safe. This is our community.”
“Our buildings are old. We know we need to test on a regular basis with abatement. We need new buildings. We obviously can’t do that,” said OUSD Superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell.
Loebl wants a campus with safe drinking water. In the meantime, he hopes the community can help keep students hydrated.
“So I call on partners from the community to provide us bottled water to school sites in Oakland,” Loebl said.
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