Two New Jersey families have filed suit against the state-run Newark Public Schools for failing to act on lead contamination in drinking water in the district.
NJTV reported Tuesday that two families filed a federal lawsuit charging that the school district’s superintendent, the city of Newark and Gov. Chris Christie knew about problems with lead in the water as early as 2011, but did nothing.
“Rather than do something meaningful, the defendants sought to cover it up, put ineffective filters in, didn’t change them when they were required to, and then gave themselves and other administration officials access to bottled water, leaving our children and our teachers to drink the tainted water in Newark schools,” said Atymen Aboushi, the attorney for the families.
News broke earlier this year that 30 schools in Newark had dangerous levels of lead in the drinking water. Bottled water has been provided to the schools since then.
Newark is dealing with lead water issues, a crisis that was forced into the public conscience by the situation in Flint, Mich. In that city, a switch in the drinking water source caused lead pipes to corrode into the drinking water, leaving 100,000 people unable to use their water.
Since then, lead water issues have been reported in Ohio and Jackson, Miss.
The lawsuit filed against the Newark Public Schools is a class-action suit, according to the report, which would allow others to join.
The city, school district and Christie’s office all declined to comment on the lawsuit to NJTV. Former Newark mayor Sen. Cory Booker’s office has never returned a request for comment on the situation in Newark to the Washington Examiner.
