Making references to water contamination in Flint, Mich., activists Thursday denounced Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for withholding information about lead in school water and mold in classrooms.
That’s how serious this is,” said Corine Mack, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg branch of the NAACP.
About two dozen adults and teens gathered at Little Rock AME Zion Church in uptown Charlotte Thursday to demand greater accountability from a superintendent who initially dismissed high levels of lead coming from school drinking fountains as “not noteworthy or newsworthy.” Rev.
Dwayne Walker, pastor of the church, agreed to lead a group of business, civic and political leaders who will seek a meeting with Superintendent Clayton Wilcox and his top staff.
Last fall CMS voluntarily tested water from drinking fountains and other fixtures at 58 older elementary and K-8 schools.
At Thursday’s meeting, organizers played a clip of Wilcox telling WSOC he didn’t consider those findings “noteworthy or newsworthy.” But as criticism continued, Wilcox told the school board that CMS “probably could have done a better job … we learned some lessons about that.” Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Current Time 0:00 / Duration 2:20 Clayton Wilcox, CMS superintendent, talks about testing water Advertisement Some Charlotte-Mecklenburg elementary schools found lead in their drinking water.
Brian Kasher, a current CMS parent and former environmental health manager for the district, says CMS has continued to resist providing some details from the first round of lead testing, including appendices that reveal the locations of the fixtures that were tested.
Kasher said Wilcox has continued a CMS tradition of explaining away environmental problems when the public turns up the pressure with, “Oops, we need to improve communication.” Read More CMS found lead in water at 27 schools.
Read More CMS will test 32 more schools for lead.
This time parents will get the results.