• Milwaukee Public Schools, health officials and community partners held a lead screening clinic for children after lead hazards were found in school buildings.
• The city health department plans to deploy teams to areas with low screening rates to ensure testing access.
• Milwaukee’s health commissioner expressed confidence in the school district’s lead action plan, describing it as a “living document” that will continue to evolve.

It was no coincidence that Terresa Linton and her 9-year-old son were among the first to step foot in the May 7 lead screening clinic at Milwaukee’s North Division High School.

Her son, Thailand Hodges, attends Brown Street Academy — one of the two most recent Milwaukee Public Schools buildings that will close so lead hazards can be addressed.

When the school closes May 12, students and staff will move to Andrew S. Douglas Middle School.

Linton, 39, of Milwaukee said she had been nervous walking into the clinic but breathed a sigh of relief when the test results came back within minutes showing her son didn’t have elevated levels of the toxic metal in his blood.

“Everyone should get their children tested and … make sure that they’re safe,” she said.

Screenings hope to identify children with concerning lead levels

The afternoon clinic was the second held by Milwaukee Public Schools, Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers, Children’s Wisconsin and the City of Milwaukee Health Department as the district contends with deteriorating facilities that pose a risk to its students.

The clinic had the capacity to screen 300 children.

The first lead screening clinic, which was held in March, found “a very small number” of the approximately 250 children tested had elevated levels of the toxic metal in their blood.

Even as more children have been getting tested, including at their pediatricians’ offices, the fact that few children are testing positive has not put health officials’ minds at ease.

“The children that are in most need of screening often have the most barriers to getting screened, often low-income families,” said Milwaukee Health Department Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Health Tyler Weber.

That’s why various clinics, including these two, have been held and why city health officials are encouraging the school district to hold screening clinics at specific schools, he said.

The health department also is readying a team of health workers to deploy to areas with low screening rates to ensure the children hardest to reach get tested, Milwaukee Health Commissioner Mike Totoraitis told a meeting of the city’s Board of Health on May 7.

Some of the MPS students identified as having lead poisoning are older than 6 years old, the age when children stop getting tested for lead under city recommendations. He encouraged parents of MPS students to get their children and teens tested, no matter their age.

“When we start looking at older children, we’re going to find lead-poisoned kids,” he said.

‘Small amount of lead … has ramifications that affect everyone’

Outside the screening clinic, a group of about 15 had gathered to call for changes.

Among them was Kat Cisar, whose twin first-graders attend Trowbridge Street School of Great Lakes Studies in Bay View. The school reopened in March after being closed for nearly two weeks to address lead issues.

She said she was happy that children were getting tested but that the approach of responding to lead-poisoned children also put the youngest Milwaukeeans on the “front lines.”

She urged thinking about the city’s lead issue not as an individual problem but as a collective public health issue.

“My kids might be fine, but that’s not acceptable to me if other kids aren’t, because we all grow up together,” she said. “They are all going to grow up together. They’re going to be adults together, and if they have negative impacts from even a small amount of lead that has ramifications that affect everyone.”

Lead action plan will continue to grow

Totoraitis expressed confidence in the MPS lead action plan released last week after the protesters called for changes.

He called the plan a “living document that is continuing to grow” and said he appreciated input on it.

Totoraitis addressed a central concern raised by the protesters that the school district’s lead action plan was more reactive than proactive, saying that, at this juncture, the focus is on bringing the school district back into compliance after years of degradation.

“Ideally, we would love to get ahead of potential poisonings, not just in the school buildings but in homes and daycares, everywhere across the city,” he said.

Once the district is in compliance, he said, officials will look to continue the discussion about the investments the city needs to ensure safe and healthy housing.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.

Sarah Volpenhein can be reached at svolpenhei@gannett.com or at 414-607-2159.