The Detroit Federation of Teachers, the AFT, parents, and students filed a lawsuit against Detroit Public Schools and state-appointed Emergency Manager Darnell Earley.
Earley was the Emergency Manager in Flint, when the decision was made to change the source of the town’s safe water supply to the polluted water in the Flint a River.
“According to the lawsuit, DPS “has not performed its duty to its students, parents, teachers and community to provide a minimally adequate education and to properly maintain the schools.”
“The lawsuit said DPS and Earley have allowed the condition of some schools to “deteriorate to the point of crisis” and “forced Detroit’s school-age children to spend their young lives in deplorable surroundings risking their health and safety in the process.”
“The lawsuit also said, “It is not a surprise that due to this, and other reasons, including budget cuts and mismanagement, that DPS is in dead last in academic performance with a majority of its students being left behind the rest of the country.”
“Last week, the city of Detroit posted the inspection reports from 11 schools from Jan. 12 to Jan. 17.
“Each school inspected was found to have multiple violations. Nine schools had damaged or falling ceiling tiles while five schools had a rodent problem. Four had leaky roofs and three had heating issues….
“At Carleton Elementary, Teachers posted pictures showing water damage and pieces of tile coming loose and falling off the ceiling,” the complaint states. “One teacher reported the debris striking a student in the head during testing.”
“Other examples include pictures of rodent droppings at Dossin and bathroom equipment that doesn’t work at Osborn….”
“With the lawsuit, DFT is hoping that the court will remove Earley from his duty as emergency manager and restore local control over DPS. Also, they want the court to force DPS to perform periodic inspections, investigate complaints filed by parents and teachers and fix all code violations found by the city of Detroit.
“On top of that, the plaintiffs also want DPS to “develop and institute a capital plan that provides the students of Detroit 21st century schools in which parents would want to send their children and educators would want to teach.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope this works. The Detroit emergency manager who helped to get lead poisoning going in Flint should be ousted ASAP.
Rachael Maddow did a one hour town meeting on Flint issues last night. She was a compelling reporter and effective teacher, as were other participants, except for a couple of foot-dragging state officials who wanted to do (another) study.
Gymnasium full of residents stood up and cheered with call for abolishment of emergency managers everywhere in the state…period…in addition to ousting the governor.
Also standing and cheering for the pediatrician who pushed the data on lead into the news.
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I watched the Rachel Maddow show on Flint, too. Two observations struck me, aside from strong cheering for the crowd in favor of restoring democracy: 1) the school in which the meeting was held does not have a school nurse; can’t afford one; despite the numbers of children testing positive for lead poisoning and needing monitoring; 2) Senator Stabenow succinctly explained that the legislature passed the Emergency Manager law, the public repealed it in 2012, and the legislature restored it despite the repeal. And that is why there is no democracy in Flint or most other majority black cities in Michigan.
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dianeravitch: thanks for the reminder that rheephormsters went all out in eviscerating their own most precious sales point and excuse—
That the people most affected made “bad” choices. For example, no teacher or parent made the choice that there would be no nurse in a school where the children need to be monitored for lead poisoning. That and many other choices were made by the beneficiaries and enforcers of corporate education reform.
As Chiara once put it: “choice but no voice.”
😎
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Laura H. Chapman and dianeravitch: it just occurred to me—
Given their indispensable roles in the lead poisoning of the children of FLINT, MI, I propose that henceforth those tormented by this terrible (and avoidable and predictable) affliction should be referred to as suffering from—
SNYDER EARLEY SYNDROME.
😡
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Good for the DFT, the AFT, the parents, and the students! I hope they win their lawsuit.
And on a slightly different, but related note, the ACLU of Michigan and others have filed a federal lawsuit to secure safe drinking water for Flint, Michigan. Good for them, too.
http://www.aclumich.org/article/groups-file-federal-lawsuit-secure-safe-drinking-water-flint
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This is what happens when far right wing libertarian/Ayn Randian free marketeer privatizers are elected to office. They don’t believe in a commons and they certainly are enemies of the real public schools.
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What happened to Common Core? All students receiving the same education? Same benefits in school settings? Same this. Same that? Its more UNCOMMON than anything else in America.
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Unfortunately, CCSS only promised/mandated that students would be held to the same standards. The resources to do so were apparently never part of the package.
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Yes!
There is a saying that goes somewhat like this: “a teacher’s working conditions are a student’s learning conditions.”
By standing up for their students the teachers are standing up for themselves as well as the parents of those students and their associated communities.
IMHO, those who advocate for self-styled “education reform” own the whole mess. From beginning to end there’s no one one else to pin the blame on. Their ideas, their policies, their mandates.
I’m just waiting for one of them, any of them, to come on this blog and bitterly complain that this is just another example of teachers using poverty as an excuse for not doing their jobs.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates sends his children to his old alma mater (Lakeside School) and Chris Christie his to Delbarton School and Rahm Emanuel (and soon Arne Duncan) his to U of Chicago Lab Schools and the beat goes on and on and on.
With nary a rat dropping and unusable bathroom and ceiling tiles falling down in sight.
I wonder why?
😎
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According to the most recently available NCES data from FY2013, DPS spent $14,259 per student, ninth highest out of the hundred largest school districts in the US (and with the eight ahead of it being in metropolitan areas with a higher COL) and a whopping 33% higher than the $10,759 average for Michigan.
Hopefully the lawsuit will shed light on where all of that money has gone.
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Since teachers in Detroit have not had a raise in 10 years, I wonder where the money goes. Not to maintenance. Not to teachers. Not to reducing class size.
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BREAKING: Lead levels of significant numbers of children living in Michigan’s other intentionally hypersegregated communities are as high or higher than the children affected by the Flint water crisis:
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/01/27/many-michigan-cities-higher-lead-levels-flint/79438144/
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Google the blood lead levels of children in Flint 20 years ago. It’s something to behold.
Also, http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/
“Today at least 4 million households have children living in them that are being exposed to high levels of lead. There are approximately half a million U.S. children ages 1-5 with blood lead levels above 5 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL), the reference level at which CDC recommends public health actions be initiated.”
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Who is responsible, the emergency manager, the republican governor? They were not even born when the lead pipes were installed.
As I said before using input from “The Atlantic Magazine” and a lot of research, this problem existed in the sixties and a simple solution was to let the water run for a few minutes before drinking it as per the World Health Organization. The problem does exist now in many older cities (older housing) built before the sixties when use of lead pipe was banned. Flint is just the canary in the coal mine.
I even stated that people living in older cities should check the lead content in their homes. There are services available that will do this for you.
LAUSD flushes all water fountains in their schools every morning to remove lead that leeched out during the night from solder joints. They estimated that they use about 2 million gallons of water each year for flushing, which is now a greater concern.
It is time for all of us to get educated from the University of Michigan Water Crisis course. Please see my comment below.
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Flint didn’t have the lead poisoning and leeching of lead from pipes until the Emergency Manager Darnell Earley appointed by Governor Snyder switched from safe water to Flint River water. Everyone understands this except Raj. Old axiom: when you are in a hole, stop digging.
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Hey Raj, since you and Tim are such buddies, did you see his post below? State officials were providing their own employees with fresh water coolers long before they acknowledged any problems to the plebes who had to drink the stuff.
First rule of holes, Raj.
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Tim, we could always blame it on the teachers and public schools.
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Dienne,
You quoted Tim, “State officials were providing their own employees with fresh water coolers long before they acknowledged any problems to the plebes who had to drink the stuff.”
Exactly as you and Tim quote, a lot more people in the city administration, county and state administration willingly or unwillingly contributed to the water crisis. The emergency manager alone did not poison or kill the people of Flint as the byline from Diane Ravitch so emphatically stated. The statement that he killed 10 people is beyond comprehension. If that is so it is a criminal act and the county Grand Jury and the District Attorney have to handle that issue.
Remember no body had to drink that stuff, they just had to let the water flow for couple minutes to reduce/minimize the lead contamination. Even though that method is still advocated by World Health Organization no one in authority ever publicized it. I believe that was not because for lack of knowledge. A simple Google search will show the WHO recommendation. Of course the poor were probably not equipped to find this, but the city and the water department and the state water quality department probably had some one who could have done this and reduced the magnitude of the problem. No one will ever know why that was not done.
Diane thinks that I am digging a deeper hole, but she is wrong. I am just sticking to the science because I am a scientist. I am also spending time to learn from the University of Michigan, Flint Water crisis course.
Finally, I do take personal attacks seriously and respond with science based arguments.
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Possible heads up for Diane…potential competition for attention at Press Club or perhaps questions about this initiative while you are there Feb 2.
http://edexcellence.net/articles/essa-accountability-design-competition-the-contenders
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This situation in Flint is an example of how greed and power corrupt. The Governor and his cronies caused this to happen and have poisoned many innocent residents.
Justice must be served!
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This is an alert to all communities, can we trust our public officials to protect our safety in the face of savings on budgets. Those entities who manage the water supply, will they do their job and proper accountability in place. Already we hear of another community in Ohio where water management didn’t report high lead concentrations in the water. Who can we trust?
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Diane Ravitch,
A lot water has flown down the Flint river and a lot of media attention on the crisis has resulted in various unsupportable conclusions in media and in various blogs.
Now the University of Michigan at Flint has started a 8 lecture/participation series on Flint water crisis, the first one was held on January 21. The rest will be weekly and those who are in Flint can attend the sessions, each session is two hours long. People who attend at least 5 sessions in Flint will be given a participation certificate by the University of Michigan. Please remember that University of Michigan is one of the top 20 universities in this country.
The sessions are video taped and become available on youtube a few days after the session is completed. Please see the links below
https://www.umflint.edu/pubhealth/flint-water-crisis-course
and the first session is at
These sessions (16 hours in all) will be conducted by the faculty and other informed people. This should provide valuable and accurate information to any one inclined to spend 16 hours on educating themselves. I hope this course will answer all questions about the crisis.
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Interesting, but unimpressive. I’d rather see the issues play out in a court of law and/or congressional hearing. Nothing like the threat of perjury charges to help get to the truth.
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Nice try, Raj. That does not mitigate the initial claim that lead poisoning was caused by state’s bad decision: switching water supply to the Flint river. You just admitted that the river was highly contaminated. The undeniable fact is that water was still safe to drink while its source came from Detriot river–even though the pipes were very old and contained deposits. Too bad you head is stuck so deep in the drain pipe. What a great Hefflump moment for you!
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BREAKING–seems that the people (non-appointees, from the looks of it) who work in the state office building in Flint weren’t about to risk drinking tainted water, so they raised hell and got water coolers installed in the building.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/01/28/amid-denials-state-workers-flint-got-clean-water/79470650/
who could blame them? You can’t help guide the public through a polluted water crisis if you yourself are drinking *that same polluted water*! These guys are really humanitarians if you think about it.
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Don’t forget the GM plant switched water supply because the Flint water was corrosive to equipment.
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Yeah, kind of excuses TEPCO execs and nuclear village folks appointed by METI like to make in the wake of Fukushima crisis.
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There are no excuses.
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I have nothing against filing law suits but when that becomes a major strategy in courts so stacked against us I see it as a diversion from the very thing that got that situation noticed in the first place – the militancy of the teacher sickout that the unions did not support or encourage. Where was Randi and the lawsuit before the sickout? Were conditions better a few months ago? What this is is a diversion which will take a long time in the courts but might deflect teachers from taking the kind of action that got results — offering them a false hope that judges who are appointed by the same political forces that killed the Flint water supply and the Detroit school system. Given the choice – militant teachers, students and parents in open revolt or a lawsuit winding through the courts, the governor and cohorts will take the latter any time. Don’t forget that law suit “won” in NYC for money a decade ago- still waiting.
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As a born and raised, former Michigander and as someone who lived in Detroit for a time, I continue to be appalled but not surprised by this … criminality. Never would this happen in a tony Detroit suburb like Troy or Sterling Heights, etc. There is no way to describe this other than the most callous sort of class warfare.
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While running water (I do this and my home was built in 1976) is a partial solution, in this case There was so much lead being leached out of the pipes that it wouldn’t have helped. For God’s sake, the water was brown and it smelled. I wouldn’t drink it even if it was boiled.
But these people had to live under the conditions. Even if they weren’t drinking it, they still had to cook, clean, brush their teeth, and bathe in this dirty, tainted water. Running the tap just isn’t enough in this instance.
Plus, this has been going on for years now, not a week or a month. How long can you live without water? And supplying bottled water just touches the surface – something needs to be done in a hurry so these families don’t have to continue to suffer.
Those who pooh pooh this crisis need to consider whether they would be willing to live under these conditions for an extending period of time.
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Yes, exactly, flos56. Running the water in the taps for a short time would not have solved the extreme lead problems in Flint, despite what Raj keeps saying.
He says he is a scientist. I would invite him to go up to Flint and drink and bathe in the tap water for a few weeks, even after running it for a couple of minutes, and not use any of the bottled water. He could consider this an experiment.
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Raj and Tim should be drinking the Flint water; they think it is safe. Just run the tap. What a hoot. Now I know where to come for a daily dose of hilarity! I know, it was the TEACHERS who poisoned everyone. Right?
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Donna,
Either provide a hyperlink to a comment where I stated that Flint’s water was safe, or retract your defamatory statement.
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I think someone should bring a filter to de-contaminate the water–the same one currently used for crippled Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear reactors. Wait, what? It’s lead-contaminated!? Oh Snap!
Well, maybe 100,000 tons of bleach will do.
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