A teachers’ union official demanded Monday that Chicago Public Schools test the blood of students and staff at a Bridgeport school for lead after high levels of the harmful metal were found in classroom paint.
The demand, one of several, was made after high lead levels were found in three rooms at McClellan Elementary, including in a special education classroom, last week.
Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter also called for a new, quick process to identify and remediate CPS schools with lead contamination. Even low levels of lead can cause brain damage and young children are at particularly high risk.
“We have young children, 4 years old and older, who can get cognitive disabilities as a result of ingesting lead,” Potter said at a morning news conference outside the school at 3527 S. Wallace St.
Potter said the union is going to hand out test kits to teachers at McClellan, a school built in 1881. He said the McClellan building also has a roof that needs to be fixed and that a brown liquid has leaked into at least one classroom, which also tested high for lead. The union would like to meet with CPS Chief Executive Pedro Martinez.
More than a dozen teachers and parents appeared at an early morning news conference to call out CPS, which they said should have tested for lead months ago. They also noted that a number of special education and “medically fragile” students attend the school.
“Every morning parents come to this school and we drop our students off thinking they’re going to be safe and well taken care of,” said Cindy Goga, a parent with a seventh-grade daughter and sixth-grade son. “So imagine our dismay when we found out the building itself was dangerous.”
Goga, who said her son has an immune deficiency disorder, thanked teachers who tested paint chips and dust for the presence of lead, moves that she said prompted CPS officials to do their own testing last week. She said parents had complained about the chipping, peeling paint.
“The teachers, the staff and parents have been complaining for a long time about the falling, chipping paint in the classrooms, in the hallway, and we’ve continuously been ignored,” Goga said. “It’s unacceptable and you failed our children.”
Special education teacher Kelly Harmon said CPS knew about concerns over peeling paint in October, something that the district has so far denied.
“CPS had told our administration that there was nothing to worry about, that it was safe to stay in the rooms, that everything was OK,” Harmon said.
In a statement to the Sun-Times, CPS denied that it delayed addressing the situation at McClellan. However, it added “we have heard that some concerns were shared in October and we are investigating any possible communication issues.”
CPS said Monday that it has completed remediation in two rooms and that it will test all classrooms and other areas in the building over winter break. Students were moved from the affected classrooms.
A McClellan email to parents over the weekend provided information about lead testing, other resources and the number for a lead hotline operated by the Chicago Department of Public Health: (312) 747-5323.
Some teachers and union officials have said they believe the lead contamination is not confined to one school.
“We have schools — dozens of them around the system — in the same situation. They just haven’t taken upon themselves to test and neither has CPS,” Potter said.
Brett Chase’s reporting on the environment and public health is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.
