"Parents in Milwaukee push back against Trump administration: Federal aid refused during lead crisis in schools"
The library at Starms Discovery Learning Center is a colorful space, with cheerful peach and blue walls, and wooden shelves filled with books wrapped in thick plastic to protect them from little hands. But on Monday, it became a hub for sharing darker tales – stories of stressed-out parents, anxious kids, and the heartbreak of missing out on end-of-year celebrations.
These stories were about families dealing with a toxic issue - lead – in their homes and schools. They spoke of brain damage and learning disabilities, and frustration over the federal government's denial of help.
"I'm here to amplify your voices," said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Madison, Wisconsin.
Baldwin, alongside officials from the city's health department and school district, came to Starms to listen to these families and community activists. They wanted to understand more about their struggle since the discovery that a child had been poisoned by lead paint in one of the city's aging school buildings.
The city's health department ordered the school district to address the hazard, but the problem turned out to be widespread. Six schools have been closed for cleaning and repainting, displacing approximately 1,800 students. Over the summer, the district aims to visually inspect all school buildings by September 1.
The district, which is the largest in Wisconsin, has 144 buildings, all but 11 of which were built before 1978, when it was still legal to use lead in paint. The average age of an MPS school is 82 years.
Starms Early Childhood Center, located just a few blocks away, is one of four still closed. It was built in 1893, and its preschool and kindergarten students and teachers were moved into the elementary school. Even though the city has cleared the building to reopen, many families prefer to remain where they are through the end of the school year to minimize further disruptions. It's Friday, the district's last day before summer break.
Several students in the district have been found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood. One case has been definitively linked to deteriorating paint in the basement of a school building, Golda Meir elementary. Two other cases involved students at Trowbridge and Kagel schools. Investigations revealed that the source of the lead was likely a combination of home and school exposures.
In a city plagued by health hazards of lead, they're trying to repair school buildings and public trust. Other cases have been investigated and the schools were cleared as the source, said Caroline Reinwald, a spokesperson for the Milwaukee Health Department.
Since the crisis started, Reinwald said, about 550 children have been screened for lead at clinics run by the health department and Novir, a company hired by the city to assist with screening. However, many more children still need to be tested, according to Dr. Michael Totoraitis, the city's health commissioner.
The City of Milwaukee Health Department had been working with experts in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch. However, the entire team was laid off in the federal government's Reduction in Force cuts in April. The city had requested that the CDC dispatch disease detectives to help mount a wide-scale blood testing campaign of kids in city schools. That request was also denied, citing the agency's loss of its lead experts.
On Wednesday, hours after CNN's story was published, the US Department of Health and Human Services said it had reinstated the CDC's Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice, which includes the agency's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. It's unclear whether its work with Milwaukee will resume.
Families who attended the meeting with Baldwin on Monday expressed outrage over the Trump administration's apparent lack of support or interest.
"We need our children to be protected right now," said Tikiya Frazier, who has nieces and nephews at two of the closed schools. "We need them to understand that and come and help us. This is a state of emergency for us."
On Monday, Baldwin issued an open invitation to US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to visit Milwaukee to see and hear the issues for himself. She has twice before pressed Kennedy about the denial of federal aid. Both times he gave mollifying answers.
In total, almost 20% of the 2,400 CDC employees dismissed in April as part of a Reduction in Force have been reinstated. However, Kennedy has yet to respond to a letter sent by Baldwin and US Rep. Gwen Moore in April, urging him to reinstate the CDC's lead team.
Baldwin and her colleague, Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, sent Kennedy another letter this week with detailed questions about the fate of the Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. They gave him until June 16 to respond.
"We've got to hold the Trump administration accountable," Baldwin said. "They could make the situation better today by rehiring these experts."
Apart from the lead crisis, Koa Branch, who has four children in Milwaukee's public schools, found solace in the community's support during the Flint, Michigan, water crisis a decade ago. However, she wonders where the help is now for Milwaukee.
"Where's our help? Where's help for us?" she asked.
Branch had two sons at Westside Academy when it closed in early May. She was informed via a newsletter sent home with her children and later a phone call. Her anxiety skyrocketed.
The school district relocated classes to Andrew Douglas Middle School, about 3 miles away, or gave students the option to take classes online. Branch says her easygoing 5-year-old, Jonas, took things in stride, but her sensitive fourth-grader Jerell, 10, couldn't handle the change.
"I had to make a choice. I had to separate the two," Branch said. Jonas moved with his class and teacher to the new campus, while Jerell took classes online after Branch got home from work at night.
"I can't speak for everybody else, but it stressed my household," she said.
Branch said her kids have a vigilant pediatrician who has tested them for lead at each yearly wellness visit. So far, their test results have been normal. Still, she plans to take her youngest to a free clinic at a local church to get tested again.
Santana Wells said she had a son and a niece attending fifth grade at Brown Street Academy, which closed May 12, about a month before school ended. Being at a different school caused her son to miss out on a lot of activities Brown Street had planned for its departing fifth-graders.
"Brown Street used to do a carnival every year. They do a picnic. They have a long list of what they were doing for their graduates," Wells said. Now, she said, it was a pared-down field trip, which felt unfair.
Wells said she "runs a tight schedule" at home to make it to work by 3 p.m. each day. With the change in schools, her son was arriving home later, which made her late to work, on top of everything else.
Several parents said their kids had questions about the lead and felt anxious about going back to school in the fall, even though the city has tested their schools and deemed them safe to reoccupy.
The stories shared on Monday weren't just for federal officials - Totoraitis said the questions from children were a wake-up call for him, too. The health department's workers took great care to explain the lead situation to parents, but they hadn't done as much to try to answer kids' questions about what was happening. He said the department would work on that.
He also said he hopes to temporarily hire at least one of the laid-off CDC lead experts for a few weeks to come review the city's efforts and make sure they are on track.
Baldwin had said she hoped the federal government would rehire them, too.
"These were the renowned experts on childhood lead mitigation and remediation, and the federal government needs to have that staff capacity to help, just as they did in Flint, Michigan," she said. "That's needed here, right now, in Milwaukee."
The US Environmental Protection Agency lifted its emergency order on drinking water in Flint last month - nine years after it was put into place.
- The stories shared on Monday at Starms Discovery Learning Center focused on issues related to family health, particularly concerning lead exposure in homes and schools, leading to brain damage, learning disabilities, and frustration over the federal government's denial of help.
- Sen. Tammy Baldwin, alongside city health department and school district officials, listened to these families and community activists at Starms to better understand their struggle, following the discovery of lead poisoning in one of the city's aging school buildings.
- Education and self-development were disrupted when six schools were closed for cleaning and repainting, displacing approximately 1,800 students, and the district aimed to visually inspect all school building interiors by September 1.
- Policy and legislation surrounding lead poisoning prevention and remediation were discussed, with Sen. Baldwin calling for the rehiring of CDC lead experts to assist in Milwaukee's efforts to address this issue, citing their crucial role in handling similar crises, such as Flint, Michigan's water crisis.
