A group of Detroit students walked out of class in protest on Wednesday, the same day the state uses student attendance numbers to decide how much per-pupil funding school districts receive.
The students say they did it to draw attention to water contamination in the Detroit Public Schools Community District.
The district cut off drinking fountains and other drinking water sources before the school year started, after tests found high levels of lead and copper in some schools.
Douglas worries about how long students have been drinking contaminated water, and the effects it may have had.
And she says the district’s current temporary fix for the water problems, water coolers in schools, hasn’t been ideal for students.
Let me go to the first floor.
Let me go to the third floor.
Let me go try to find some water.” Cass Technical High School senior Maya Solomon wants more information about the ultimate source of the water contamination.
According to the district, those stations “cool water and remove copper, lead, and other contaminants from drinking water.” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti initiated the water quality testing in all district schools starting last spring.
Test results from 86 schools so far show that 57 of them had at least one drinking water source with elevated levels of lead or copper.