Early this week, parents were informed to tell their kids not to drink from any faucets in the school. A copy of the email, which Principal Claudia DeLarios Morán signed, said, “Until we have a comprehensive list of which faucets are safe to drink from, please instruct your children not to drink from any of the faucets in our building.”
The email to parents comes roughly a week after the school discovered higher-than-normal levels of lead and arsenic in the soil of the campus courtyard,according to the San Francisco Standard.
Nick Chandler, a community school coordinator at Buena Vista Horace Mann, said that the school hasn’t taken all faucets offline yet, and testing is ongoing. Chandler added the district has offered to reimburse families who have their kids taken to a doctor for lead testing.
Still, he emphasized that many parents do not have health insurance or cannot afford to front the cost and said the school is asking the district to do more.
The school, which is located in San Francisco’s Mission District, has faced many concerns about its facilities in recent years. TheSan Francisco Examiner described several troubling details about the school’s general condition, including rats in classrooms, mold in windows, and tiles falling from the ceiling.
