NYC Public School Parents Blog has a piece on peeling lead paint found in hundreds of city schools.
A portion:
The DOE found peeling lead paint at 486 schools built before 1985, including over 938 classrooms serving kids in 3-K, Pre-K, Kindergarten and first grade. More on this at Gothamist [with a WNYC radio sound file], Chalkbeat and NY Post.
The ramped up inspection is a result of investigative reporting by Christopher Werth of WNYC , who wrote in Gothamist earlier this summer how he had found lead paint in classrooms here and here; and a letter sent by members of Congress to the DOE as a result of his reporting.
A little further down:
The DOE says they plan to remediate all these classrooms before Sept., by covering the peeling paint with a “certified primer” and painted over twice.
Yet it doesn’t appear that DOE also checked for lead dust on the floors, which can also be quite toxic, especially for young kids who sit on the rug for “circle time”, as pointed out by Werth in the WNYC interview and earlier Gothamist articles. And they haven’t checked any classrooms for kids over six, or common areas.
The Chalkbeat article also has a searchable list of the 500 schools that still have water outlets that were found to have lead levels still above the “action level” of 15 parts per billion, though the DOE claims to have “remediated” all but 15 of these outlets once again.
Which brings up the question, if they had remediated them last year, as they claimed, how effective is the process by which they address this?
Good reporting by Christopher Werth and others on this and a good question there for sure from the parents.
Two additional questions:
Will this be a front page story in the UFT's NY Teacher? I just checked the news page on the UFT website and I found nothing yet on this story.
Will the UFT threaten to have teachers and students walk out if there are toxic conditions in schools? When the UFT functioned as a real union, we used to publicize unhealthy school environments. We didn't just work behind the scenes to correct them. Anybody remember the asbestos closings in 1993?
21 comments:
QUESTION: Is lead paint in the school dangerous for teachers?
What ever happened to December 23?
There are plenty of very unhealthy buildings out there. There are staffs at some buildings that have had the same cancers. I was told Truman HS was one such school. Lehman HS campus- there are many classrooms there without windows and the air is recirculated by a dirty disgusting system that continually tests positive for Legioneers. Kennedy Campus had several rooms blow up when a worker lit a cigarette. There was plenty of asbestos floating around the halls and adjacent classrooms for months afterward. Evander blasts the heat in the halls outside the library all year round. Morris HS has no heat in the library and half the classrooms. The library has no librarian and students drop in there for a quickie all day long. Mulgrew should check it out; no desks though. The UFT is a joke.
Lead poisoning symptoms in adults
High blood pressure.
Joint and muscle pain.
Difficulties with memory or concentration.
Headache.
Abdominal pain.
Mood disorders.
Reduced sperm count and abnormal sperm.
Miscarriage, stillbirth or premature birth in pregnant women.
We might make deBlasio angry if we are involved in exposing this. Won't happen.
I'm trying to book a flight...We are 100% working on 12/23?
Anonymous 6:46- live your life. Put in for a personal day and take your trip.
The UFT constantly kissing deBlasio’s derrière because he’s against charters just isn’t worth the pain and anguish so many teachers are experiencing. I know some folks that woke up sick this morning because it’s August 1st, and there’s only a month left before school starts. I commiserate, I used to feel the same way. Danielson, cell phones, no discipline and unsafe working conditions - even the buildings themselves seem to be against teachers and students. I remember the ‘93 asbestos situation well - we got an extra two weeks of summer vacation out of it.
Bunch of pussies. I've been teaching since 1996. What's a little bit of lead paint? I never nibble on it anyway!
Only another whole school year until we get a 2.5% raise.
What about Open market transfer? Thanks uft.
Dont worry, Mulgrew said we got good raises. New salaries: Raises of 2%, 2.5% and 3% produce a three-year compound rate of 7.7 percent, above expert predictions of inflation of 6.2 percent (Federal Reserve Bank) and 6.8 percent
Raises are over 3.5 years. Not three.
43 months, plus the fact that new contract started in Feb 2019 instead of the originally scheduled Novemeber 2019, so more like 48 months...But got 90% approval.
86% approval. That means over 10,000 voted no. We aren't all New York's Dumbest.
936, That was supposed to start in November 2018, city got 5 free months...
That's what your dues got you. Dont worry james, I'll say it, without the union it would be worse. Is that why everyone is already sick to their stomach because we are a month away from starting?
Do we get paid for implicit bias august training?
It is your time. You can't be forced to attend.
But do we get per session?
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