Schoolchildren in Marion County have been exposed to dangerous toxins like lead in their water, but parents were largely kept in the dark.

Why?

There's a lot of blame to go around, but the main culprits are the school districts that failed to alert parents; the Marion County Public Health Department, which officially tested 297 schools but withheld the startling results; and the Indiana General Assembly, which refuses to enact a statewide policy for testing lead in school water.

This inclination to opt for silence and obfuscation rather than transparency is why a public health crisis occurred in 2014 and 2015 in Flint, Michigan, where 12 people died from Legionnaires' disease and dozens more were sickened after the city's drinking water became contaminated with lead.

Have we learned nothing? Indiana's children, those who are owed access to both safe drinking water and a safe place to learn, are at risk.

In 2016 and 2017, lead-tainted water was detected in more than half of Marion County's schools and child care facilities, and in most cases, families at the time weren't told. That means that children were ingesting potentially dangerous lead levels for years and neither the county's health department nor school districts found it necessary to inform parents.

The Marion County Public Health Department conducted exhaustive testing of areas accessible to children, including water fountains, bathroom sinks, kitchen prep sinks, classroom labs, concession stands and athletic facilities. Over the course of 16 months, 8,842 samples were taken from 297 schools.

These numbers were part of a sanitized report the health department published in January 2019 on the schools' water sources that were surveyed, but the document did not specify how much lead the elevated samples contained.

Instead, the public report offered a school-by-school snapshot of the number of elevated samples and completed remediation efforts by all affected schools.

Frightening range of contamination

I have obtained a copy of the original internal report, which shows the ranges of lead contamination by district and the number of facilities affected.

It is beyond frightening.

According to the report, samples collected contained elevated lead levels in the tested drinking water. Those levels range from about 20 parts per billion up to a whopping 8,630 parts per billion, 500 times greater than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's threshold for corrective action, which is 15 parts per billion.

At 15 ppb, both the federal government and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management require corrective action to reduce contamination, such as remediation. The Marion County Public Health Department uses a 20 ppb threshold, according to the report.

Post-Flint, medical and environmental professionals have been advocating for lower trigger regulations. In fact, the EPA has set the maximum contaminant level goal for lead in drinking water at zero because it can be harmful to humans even at low exposure levels.

A health department spokesman characterized this report as a "draft" that "does not represent the day to day quality of water in those schools," after I questioned the finding in the unreleased document.

"The Marion County Public Health Department conducted a comprehensive survey of Marion County schools as part of an on-going effort to ensure safe drinking water in public and private schools," Curt Brantingham, a Marion County Public Health Department spokesman said via email. "The voluntary assessment led by the health department included extensive testing of thousands of water fountains and other potable water supplies within area schools.

"After remediation efforts, all schools tested successfully passed retesting, with these locations and water sources either in compliance with EPA standards at the time or taken out of service," Brantingham said.

Even at small doses, lead can pose a serious health threat to young children. Lead poisoning can cause delayed development, nervous system damage, hearing loss and stunted growth, and can have long-termimplications fora child’s memory, behavior, ability to learn and their propensity toward violence. The effects of lead poisoning usually are irreversible, and generations of children have already paid the price here.

The Marion County Public Health Department, responding to a request first made in 2016 by an unidentified township district to test its schools' drinking water, began providing the service to every school in Marion County.

The health department sent a letter to area superintendents offering free, voluntary water testing in every public, private and charter school in Marion County. All but three schools agreed, according to the unreleased report.

Lead contamination is often considered a problem for low-income and minority families — and it often is — but in this report the highest levels of contamination occurred in private schools.

In 13 of the 34 private-school facilities tested, a staggering range of 20.04 to 8,630.15 ppb was detected. Tuition at some of these schools can run upward of $22,000 annually.

The unreleased report includes the race and ethnicity of students in each school district, as well as its free- or reduced-price-meal status of its students.

The health department received the figures, which are based on 2016-17 school year data,from the Indiana Department of Education. Most of the students exposed to higher lead levels attended private schools, where white enrollment is at 62%.

Only 33.7% of those students received free or reduced-price meals, compared to the 57.8% in all Marion County schools.

The schools flagged for elevated lead levels in water have since taken corrective remediation measures, including replacing water fountains, disconnecting problematic fixtures and adding filters. The testing ended in October 2018.

In the final report, which was made public, two additional schools were included, as were20 additional water samples. The report documents the corrective measures, but it does not establish when they were made nor does it offer ranges of the water samples after retesting.

Even though corrective measures have mitigated the problem now, neither school officials nor parents have any way of knowing how long some students were exposed to lead from drinking fountains and other fixtures prior to the testing.

Given this revelation, three districts have taken a proactive approach.

Indianapolis Public Schools, Mayor’s Charter Schools and Pike Township schools entered into an agreement with the Marion County Public Health Department in September 2019 to test schoolchildren to identify those for whom intervention might make a difference in their future.

If the blood test, which entails a finger prick, reveals a lead level higher than 5 micrograms per deciliter — the standard threshold set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that indicates higher than normal levels in children — Marion County health officials will investigate to determine where the child encountered lead.

Treatment options may also be available. Children with higher lead levels may need to undergo a type of therapy known as chelation, in which the child takes medication that will bind to the metal in his or her body and remove the toxin.

A lack of political urgency, empathy

There are currently no federal or state laws mandating regular lead testing of school drinking water in Indiana. And if districts do test for contaminants, they are not required to release findings to the public.

That has to change.

In New Jersey, for example, officials require all public schools to test for lead in water, and the state recently launched a centralized database of lead test results for schools. Elected officials took action after a widespread problem of lead in schools was exposed.

Currently, three bills regarding lead poisoning have been introduced in the Indiana Senate this year. Others are pending in the House.

One proposal, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Jackson of Hammond, would require that every child care institution and school in Lake County get tested for lead and copper by 2023. Hammond has some of the highest rates of lead-poisoned children, partly due to the heavy contamination from industry and old housing stock.

Just Wednesday, Jackson argued that the Indiana Finance Authority has documented a lead problem in schools throughout the state, including in Marion County and Franklin County, and that testing should occur statewide.

Rep. David Wolkins of Warsaw, chairman of the House Environmental Affairs Committee, all but bragged that he has worked to ensure statewide testing would not become law in Indiana. Wolkins forced an amendment into the House proposal that would limit the testing to Lake County.

"This type of bill goes against everything I’ve ever fought for in the 32 years here," Wolkins said during the committee meeting. "But Representative Jackson made a good case. She’s got a problem in her area. Gary does have a lot of industrial waste and things, and I think it is something that probably needs to be done and she should have an opportunity to get it done."

In a moment of confusion as to whether the amendment passed (it did) Wolkins threatened Jackson: "If you scream and holler too loud, I will simply table the bill, and I don’t think you want me to do that."

While otherstates are working overtime to protect children from toxins in their water, Indiana lawmakers like Wolkins are content with the status quo of failing our kids. The travesty in Flint occurred because local and state officials denied, dismissed or minimized the public health crisis.

Marion County has a lead problem, and other Indiana counties likely do, too. Not enough people are talking about it or willing to do anything about it. Our children could be in grave danger and we should all be outraged.

Email IndyStar columnist Suzette Hackney at suzette.hackney@indystar.com. Friend her on Facebook at Suzette Hackney and follow her on Twitter: @suzyscribe.

Public forum on children's exposure to lead

The Greater Indianapolis NAACP Branch, in partnership with the IU McKinney School of Law, the IU Office of Community Engagement and the IU Bicentennial, will hold a public forum from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday about children’s exposure to lead and how Indiana can reduce childhood lead poisoning. Panelists include Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician, professor and public health advocate whose research exposed the Flint water crisis. The forum will be held at IU McKinney School of Law, 530 W. New York St., Indianapolis.