MILWAUKEE— Since January when the Milwaukee Public School lead crisis began, the district has been working around the clock to clean schools of lead dust and improve lead screening in students.
On September 5th of this year, the district announced that it cleared 50 district buildings built before 1950 of lead dust.
While the summer lead remediation has helped the district one step closer from eliminating lead from its buildings, the real challenge the district faced this summer was getting families to bring their children to free clinics to get screened for elevated lead levels.
Now with the school year back in session, the district has made significant progress with the number of children being screened.
Starting today through Thursday, September 18th the district is hosting lead screening clinics.
The first clinic took place at 53rd Street School from Noon to 7p.m. for MPS Students and members of the community.
MPS Manager of Health Services Tashanda Edelen says more than 60 children were screened.
“It’s very encouraging to see this rise in a number of students getting screened,” said Edelen. “I think that is just due to the support that we have. We’ve partnered with an organization called COLE that has physically been our boots on the ground going into the neighborhoods and informing families about lead and helping get these consent forms signed, so I think that is what helped drive up the numbers for us this time around.”
Orean Harper is the Outreach director for Coalition On Lead Emergency (COLE) and says she has been able to pass information onto families to make sure that children who do have elevated lead levels in their bloodstream eat healthy foods to reduce the lead levels.
“I have been encouraging parents to serve their children anything that is leafy and green,” said Harper. “Leafy green vegetables are number one, protein and dairy are also helpful. So foods like broccoli, kale, salads, yogurt, milk, cheeses, bell peppers, any foods in the three categories I have listed will help drive lead out of the body.”
Lead screening clinic supervisor Amy Ward with health contractor Novir says the efforts that the district has done to increase students getting screened has been helpful.
“MPS is really doing a good job of advertising and providing access for these families to get their children tested,” said Ward. “According to the school nurse at Morgandale where the second clinic will happen, we have about 75 consents collected from parents who will have their children screened for lead.”
The district says additional clinics will take place later this year and will be announced at a later date.
In the meantime, the remaining lead screening clinics will take place Wednesday and Thursday at the following locations:
Wednesday, September 17th: Morgandale School – FREE to all children
- In-school testing 2:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. (Morgandale students only)
- Community testing 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. (Open to all children)
Thursday, September 18th: Elm Creative Arts – FREE to all Children
- In-school testing 2:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. (Elm students only)
- Community testing 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. (Open to all children)
