It-- it-- it was the word lead. But, like, but there was no choice-- there was no way I was going to wait to have this this research vetted. Joe Posner explains. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha: Because we were looking at blood lead data done as part of these surveillance programs, which are done at the ages of 1 and 2. Angy Keelin wanted to stay in Flint Community Schools, where her blind son, Averey, was progressing in a program for visually impaired students, but then it ended abruptly. But I l--. Their water supply is so tainted that President Obama declared a federal state of emergency in Flint releasing up to $5 million USD to help the city combat what is probably one of the biggest public health crisis … Ms. Brown bathing her 1-year-old daughter, Jhy’Lah, with bottled water in their living room. The widowed father of four got here at 5 a.m. After Water Crisis, Flint Students to Be Screened for Disabilities The screenings will be available as part of a settlement tied to the city’s widespread lead contamination. But the damage was done. Now, the same doctor who proved something was wrong is taking the first comprehensive look at the thousands of kids exposed to lead in Flint. And anything that we're exposed to in our diet, what we eat, what we breathe, what we drink gets trapped in those growth rings. Like, the drinking (LAUGH) water was corroding engine parts. The water crisis, experts and residents say, has also served as a kind of catalyst for change, bringing fresh energy and resources to decades-old problems – … FBN's Cheryl Casone with more. Then came the lead crisis. The city’s schools, stretched even before the lead crisis, are struggling with demands for individualized education programs and behavioral interventions for children with high lead exposure. In small acts of defiance, they withhold their signatures from bureaucratic documents rejecting students from special education services. Students were denied assessments for education plans or behavioral intervention plans, and then were segregated from their peers, secluded and restrained, repeatedly sent home from school, expelled or arrested, the lawsuit said. “If you were driving down the road and saw a kid walking from a car injured and bloody, do you ignore it?” she said. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha: Oh, I-- I sit down. The Genesee school district maintains it has done all it can to help identify and serve students affected by the crisis in Flint. Sharyn Alfonsi: And if they come to you the city or the state and they say, "You're drinking water's safe. Kenyatta Dotson: I'm very concerned about my children. Michigan Legislature’s recently passed budget, schools can reject a student for being suspended. For parents, the opportunity to send their children to Educare is some consolation for the outrages in their lives — like paying $100 to $200 a month for water they do not believe is safe. She said she was forced to follow the program 10 miles from her home to a Genesee County school. He also expressed the need to “actually pay our teachers a living wage.”. Flint Water Crisis: Impacts on Human-Environmental Interactions and Reflections for Future Solutions Sixty-six miles northwest of Detroit, bordering the Flint River is Flint, a city in Genesee County in central Michigan, home to approximately 100,000 residents. Thanks to strict regulations imposed by the US Environmental and Protection Agency, clean tap water is something Americans take for granted. Flint has taken important steps toward resolving the lead contamination crisis that made the impoverished Michigan city a symbol of the drinking water problems that plague many U.S. communities, officials said Monday.A total of $120 million in federal and state funding has helped Flint replace more than 9,700 lead service lines, which carry water from main pipes into homes, FLINT, Mich. — Nakiya Wakes could not understand how her wiry, toothy-grinned 6-year-old had gone from hyperactive one school year to what teachers described as hysterical the next. Are you gonna believe them?Larry Marshall: No. Recently, she said, three-quarters of her class could not recall five words they had gone over every day for two weeks. The suit accuses the school systems of violating federal and state laws, including the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, by failing to identify students who could qualify for special education services, by failing to provide the mandated instructional services to those who do qualify and by punishing children for disability-related behavior. Ethan, who had also tested positive for lead, told his mother he made the exchange because he “didn’t want to be punched again,” she said. But we begin with the legacy of Flint's water crisis. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha: I-- I knew that. The city is 53% black and has one of the highest poverty rates in the country. Comm 322: Flint Water Crisis research group. In asking students to deconstruct the political and social realities of the Flint water crisis—a crisis that’s been inflicted upon them as minorities and underrepresented low-income people—students become problem posers and solvers, critical participants answering their own questions rather than passively accepting the answers given to them by those who seem not to care. Sharyn Alfonsi: So what did it take before your-- it-- your eyes opened about this? “I don’t want him to be continuously held back.”. Sharyn Alfonsi: Didn't anybody at that point say, "If it's corroding an engine, maybe this shouldn't be going into our bodies, into our kids?". In one of Ms. Wakes’s clashes with Flint Community Schools, she delivered administrators a warning: “You can’t keep suspending him because soon, you’re going to have to suspend the whole school system.”. “We’re here to provide answers.”. Because we can't do much about it. Five years after Michigan switched the city’s water supply to the lead-saturated river, Flint’s lead crisis has migrated to its schools. The Flint water crisis has attracted national attention, and many have sent contributions and support to the thousands of lives affected by the contaminated water. It is an irreversible neurotoxin. Flint has taken important steps toward resolving the lead contamination crisis that made the impoverished Michigan city a symbol of the drinking water problems that plague many … Meanwhile, Delta College is partnering with Flint Community Schools and the EPA to develop a program to get high school students on a path to a potential career at the fFint public water … Flint resident Gladyes Williamson (C) holds a bottle full of contaminated water, and a clump of her hair, alongside Jessica Owens (R), holding a baby bottle full of contaminated … The crisis has forced a hard conversation about Flint — “toxicity” existed here long before the water crisis, she said. Let's pause. This is not a third world country. The City of Flint Water Plant is illuminated by moonlight on January 23, 2016 in Flint, Michigan. Those early years are a critical time for brain development. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha: But we also realized that our research, our science, this data and facts was also an underestimation of the exposure. Key, who drafted the resolution to declare racism a public health crisis in Genesee County, said there needs to be a national movement to do that. Heather Reynolds’s 12-year-old son, Ethan, had a mood disorder and A.D.H.D. Jaylon would go on to cycle through two schools, receive 30 suspensions and rack up 70 unexcused absences. And-- and the thing about it is it's not lightening up. Months of protests were waved off by officials who denied anything was wrong. Flint has taken important steps toward resolving the lead contamination crisis that made the impoverished Michigan city a symbol of the drinking water problems that … The $15 million facility includes mindfulness rooms and a generous playground. A 2017 report found that 55 percent of Flint’s students attended charter schools — the second-highest charter enrollment in the country. If we cannot guarantee that all kids have access to safe drinking water, not just privileged kids, but all kids have access to safe drinking water. Article: “Michigan will end Flint’s free bottled water program” As a class, read this CNN article about Michigan’s decision to end Flint’s free bottled water program. The partial settlement that established the neurodevelopmental center was a “critical first step,” said Kristin Totten, a lawyer with the A.C.L.U., but the lawsuit is demanding that every Flint student be assessed and get needed intervention. Mona.". “Once they get a suspension, the good schools don’t want them,” Ms. Reynolds said. Jeree Brown with her son Jabari, left, and daughters Jhy’Lah and Ja’Nyah. Testing on the drinking water in Newark, New Jersey, found lead levels four times higher than the federal limit. In 2015, Dr. Mona and a colleague started digging through blood test records of 1,700 Flint children. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha: I mean that should have been like fire alarm bells. ... We are in a water crisis beyond anything you can imagine. There's no antidote. Though her research discovered the lead in their blood in 2015, she is looking on the bright side. 3 The crisis also involved a complex set of laws, comprised of two distinct legal regimes — public health and safe drinking water — and multiple governmental agencies. Dr. Mona shared her preliminary findings with 60 Minutes. Now its children have lead poisoning. And we compared them to the children's blood lead levels after the water switch. Although it was once a thriving industrial centre, the city of Flint in souteastern Michigan And not only my children, but I'm concerned about the children of Flint. They were all exposed to toxic water. 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