Free blood tests were offered at public pre-schools, after testing found elevated levels of lead in drinking water. Watch video
NEWARK — Parents, who were taking advantage of voluntary, free blood tests at a city school with lead-contaminated water, expressed anger and concern about the water contamination and a few said they'd consider suing if their children were found to have high levels of lead in their blood.
"If you have the opportunity to change the color paint in the school, you should be able to change the plumbing. There's a lot of stuff being redone in (her school)," said Nicole Holland, 38, a lifelong Newark resident with two children in lead-affected schools.
Holland's older daughter already got lead poisoning at the age of 3 from paint in an apartment building that Holland received through a Section 8 housing voucher, she said, and she is already suing about that.
Holland was in front of the Early Childhood School Central at Samuel L. Berliner School on Montgomery Street where the city started offering blood tests for 3 and 4-year-olds on Thursday morning.
About 67 students' parents signed them up to be tested at ESC's Central location, according to F. Nana Ofosu-Amaah, the Executive Director of the Office of the Early Childhood Center. About 43 were actually tested, she said.
The free test was offered to all 210 students in the school, and on Friday, the tests will be offered to the 131 students at the ECS-West location, Ofosu-Amaah said.
Holland said the idea of her daughter having received even more lead exposure at school, was too much, and she would seek compensation for her children if there were negative results.
"She's been sleeping a lot, complaining about her head hurting," she said. "I'm very concerned that she was exposed again to this situation."
City Health Director Hanaa Hamdi told officials testing will start with some 2,000 toddlers, ABC 7 reported, but about 17,000 students are eligible for the testing.
Thirty schools were found to have elevated lead levels in their water, Newark school officials and the state Department of Environmental Protection announced March 9. The staff and students are now drinking bottled water, officials said.
The city's water itself is clean, but was contaminated by old, lead pipes, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka emphasized in his State of the City speech on Tuesday, calling on the state to update old water infrastructure throughout the state.
City officials announced that lead levels have been elevated in some Newark schools since at least 2012.
The Newark teachers union also made allegations last week that the district was aware of the lead levels for more than 10 years. On Wednesday, the district said it is working on obtaining testing results since 2004.
Several parents expressed anxiety about these revelations.
Kimberly Clark, another deeply concerned parent who was planning to test her child, told NJ Advance Media on Thursday that officials should have given the children bottled water "since the beginning."
Clark already gets her 5-year-old daughter tested for lead at their pediatrician annually as a precaution, she said, because "you know, sometimes, they go to school, and they put (possibly lead-painted) toys in their mouths."
Charles Mitchell and his fiancee, Latoya Morris, were also at the site to get their child tested. Mitchell said he was going to pretend to get tested first, so their frightened 4-year-old son, Dezmere, could see it's not too scary.
"I'm just glad they can get tested," he said, but he added that "(school officials) just said that the filters haven't been changed in so many years. Nobody said that it could have been prevented."
"It's ridiculous. God knows how long it would have been like this," Morris said, noting that her 4-year-old son had been in the school system for two years. "They probably knew this water was like this, I believe, and they should have said something about this... I'm just nervous."
If her child receives bad results from the lead test, she said, she may sue.
The test requires the drawing of blood from the children's arms, so many parents noted that their children were not happy about it. But not all of the parents were angry at the district; some said that the mayor and district officials had handled the situation well.
Bianca Ramos, 24, who got her 3-year-old daughter tested in the morning, said that it was "just for peace of mind," but she believed there had been "a quick response." Officials had given parents a lot of information in paperwork, she said.
She said she was told to expect to get the results in about two days.
LeVar Harper, 36, said he isn't getting his 15-year-old daughter tested because she drinks bottled water. He said that officials at her school were doing a good job, and he praised the mayor for acting "swiftly."
"Ever since she's been going to school, she's always brought bottled water," said LeVar Harper, 36. "Bottled water is the way to go. It's safer."
However, he believed that parents whose children did drink from the water fountains should get their children tested.
Parents spoke angrily at Wednesday night's school board meeting in Newark, asking for more information about the lead issue, according to ABC7.
The district superintendent explained that any water tested with over 15 parts per billion (ppb) of lead is a red flag, and most schools had results of about 100 ppb, with one at 558 ppb, the station reported.
In contrast, in Flint, Michigan, the highest level Virginia Tech researchers found anywhere was 13,000 ppb (the 90th percentile was 25 ppb), according to their study website.
Laura Herzog may be reached at lherzog@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LauraHerzogL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.