School officials are warning families after they detected lead in the water at some of the schools in Medford, Massachusetts.
Parents received a message Friday from Medford Public Schools superintendent Marice Edouard-Vincent, informing families of what was discovered by recent water sampling conducted by the district.
"We are taking these results seriously and are moving immediately to safeguard the health of the students, faculty and staff," the superintendent said. "Out of an abundance of caution, we will be posting the majority of faucets across our schools as 'Do Not Drink - Hand Washing or Cleaning Only.'"
The district also said it is working closely and cooperatively with the Medford Department of Public Health in order to fully safeguard students and other individuals. Edouard-Vincent shared nine action items that the district is doing, including applying for the school water improvement grant to provide greater access to filtered water.
The superintendent did not identify which schools were impacted by this.
One student at Andrews Middle School tells NBC10 Boston that he learned about the situation while in Spanish class on Friday.
"Some kids said that they in earlier classes had teachers barging into the room saying do not drink the water," said Noam Weiner-Duran.
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Shortly after that alarming announcement, Weiner-Duran says he saw signs popping up at faucets throughout the school.
“Teachers said that other kids have thrown up during lunch announcements and not to drink the water,” he explained.
While Medford Public Schools says they have not received reports of illnesses from students or staff, middle schoolers tell a different story.
“A few people threw up apparently and some kids have complained about stomach problems, but if you use the filtered water fountains then you can be clear,” Weiner-Duran said.
So far, parents say two middle schools within the public school system have been affected.
“Water is very concerning to me as a parent because we don’t know if it’s just schools which was the McGlynn and the Andrews that we got notified about,” one parent said.
Medford Public Schools says faucets and bubbles require a 30-second flush to ensure clean drinkable water. Since this cannot be guaranteed to happen consistently across the district, however, they say all water fixtures and faucets with lead test results over 15 parts per billion were taken out of commission.
“There’s some filtered water fountains so it just takes maybe like an extra two minutes to go over to a different filtered water fountain,” Weiner-Duran said.
The school system also assures parents that all filtered bottle filling stations were tested and are safe to drink from.
“Just waiting to hear more information but the school's communicating and I feel comfortable that my student knows that to do,” parent Nicole Weiner-Duran said.
Now Medford Public Schools says so far they have not received reports of health concern issues from students or staff. They also reminded parents that some schools could contain lead pipes because they're older buildings.
