Get the Lead Out Coalition Supports Golda Meir School Parents Petition
For Immediate release
For more information contact:
Robert Miranda @ 414-469-4182
GET THE LEAD OUT COALITION SUPPORTS GOLDA MEIR SCHOOL PARENTS PETITION
Milwaukee, WI -- Parents at Golda Meir school are sounding an alarm. They are demanding that the Milwaukee Health Department (Health Department) and City of Milwaukee release the full results and content of the environmental assessment conducted by the Health Department. Concerned parents are circulating a petition to demand the report be released for immediate review, stating they deserve to know what is going on inside their children's school building.
Parents have made a number of demands on the Milwaukee Public Schools Administration (MPS) asking for administration to provide them with answers to numerous questions regarding the lead poisoning event that took place at the school.
“On February 6th multiple news organizations published a letter from the Health Department sharing the findings of the Health Department’s environmental assessments of several MPS schools. The Health Department and the City of Milwaukee held a press conference that same day to disclose these findings. “All of this took place without first notifying the schools, nor the families that were affected,” states the petition.
Two separate investigations conducted by the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (CLPPP) in consultation with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) confirmed that lead hazards inside the school exceed state safety levels. CLPPP and DHS warned that these hazards “pose an immediate and ongoing risk to the health and safety of students and staff.”
In their petition, concerned Golda Meir parents allege that the CLPPP and DHS findings “directly contradicted the statements made in the press conference, which indicated the schools were safe to be used due to cleaning procedures”.
GET THE LEAD OUT COALITION (GTLO) calls on MPS, the Health Department, and the City of Milwaukee Mayor’s office to be transparent and provide parents at Golda Meir School the information they are asking for in their petition. The health of children should be a priority for health and education leaders, so they should be forthcoming with this information.
Robert Miranda of GTLO states, “What is of particular concern for our group is the Mayor of Milwaukee and the Health Department Commissioner prematurely declared the case of lead poisoning at Golda Meir was caused by lead dust, even while test results were still pending. It is dishonest to make a definitive declaration to the public, claiming you know the source of the lead poisoning, without having all the information. We have been saying for years that purposely ignoring the lead in our water glosses over serious structural problems that endangers our communities, including students and teachers.”