Severe Lead Contamination Found in Water of Multiple Oakland Public Schools

A coalition of educators and concerned parents from public schools in Oakland has publicly condemned district officials for failing to address a severe lead contamination issue affecting multiple schools. The group, led by Frick United Academy of Language teachers Stuart Loebl and Ella Every-Wortman, along with school counselor Catherine Cotter and other advocates, has expressed frustration over the Oakland Unified School District’s lack of communication and action regarding the crisis. The contamination is the latest in a history of lead contamination in the district and follows a pattern of neglect toward Oakland’s public schools.

Stuart Thompson, a sixth-grade math and science teacher at Frick United Academy in East Oakland, said he and his colleagues were first informed about the lead contamination on the first day of school on Aug. 12. The district had covered water fountains with plastic bags after a report released in April revealed dangerously high lead levels in the water.

Thompson expressed frustration over the delayed notification and the district’s handling of the situation.

“This enrages me because that means that students were drinking from these water fountains for a month and a half of the remainder of school year,” Thompson said. “And then we had a big summer program where 80 students were drinking from these water fountains all throughout the summer until the first day of school.”

The April tests, obtained by Prism, showed that 21 schools had lead levels exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency’s action threshold of 15 parts per billion, and another 20 schools had levels between 5 and 15 parts per billion. Thompson emphasized that any amount of lead is considered dangerous, according to the CDC.

Exposure to lead can cause damage to children’s brains and nervous systems, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems, the CDC website says.

The district’s response has been criticized for downplaying the severity of the issue. An initial email sent to families and obtained by Prism described the problem as a communication error rather than a serious health crisis. Thompson said that this response was misleading and failed to address the gravity of the situation.

In a statement emailed to Prism, the Oakland school district said, “Over the past several months, our Risk Management team has been aggressively testing water fixtures in schools. In that process, they identified some outlets that showed elevated levels of lead, most of which fell between our Board of Education-required limit of 5 parts per billion (ppb) and the state and federal limit of 15 ppb. […] We are in the process of repairing the elevated outlets — which most often involves simply replacing a filter — and then retesting the outlets before bringing them back on line. While being very proactive in doing this testing, we were not as effective in communicating with everyone involved. We are putting systems in place to ensure a lack of effective communication does not occur again.”

Despite the district’s promises to increase testing and shut down affected water sources, Thompson reported that the initial measures were insufficient. He said that for about a week, students had access to only one filtered water station for approximately 400 people. Temporary solutions included Gatorade coolers and providing reusable water bottles, but these were not immediately available.

“My students are scared,” said Thompson. “They’re like, why can we not touch [the water]? Why can we not wash our hands? There’s also students who don’t really know what’s going on because the messaging has not been communicated well enough to families there.”

The district’s testing efforts are ongoing, but not all schools have been tested yet. Thompson noted that the district has not provided clear guidance for parents concerned about their children’s exposure or for students seeking blood tests for lead levels.

In an email sent to the district, a coalition of educators enumerated a series of unmet commitments and demands for immediate action, including requesting a comprehensive report detailing the system failures leading to the contamination, updates on repairs, and robust messaging to affected families. They have criticized the district for not providing clear and timely information. They also demand that safe drinking water alternatives be ensured, and resources for lead testing for affected students be provided. Lastly, the group is calling for long-term solutions, including, a detailed calendar for water quality testing, frequent checks at contaminated sites, and upgrades to water sources across the district. They also urged the district to secure available funding for lead remediation and work with community partners on a student-led water testing project.

“What I hope for is that they do robust testing, they fix our water pipes, they put in place a policy to make sure nothing like this ever happens again,” Thompson said. “This experience has made me pretty jaded, and I’m worried that they’re going to continue to sidestep and say this was a communication problem that we have fixed, which they have not.”

The broader implications of this crisis reflect longstanding issues within the district, including deferred maintenance and underfunding of public education. Thompson believes the lead contamination issue highlights systemic disinvestment in Oakland’s public schools, with significant maintenance needs being neglected for years.

As the situation unfolds, Thompson urged community members to stay informed and involved.

“Please take a look at the actual reports and attend the board meetings if you can,” Thompson said. “I hope our students will have access to healthy, clean water and be able to feel like we can drink that water, but if we don’t know what caused this, we can never trust them again.”

Prism is an independent and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice.