ACLU Wants Flint Kids Screened for Impact of Lead

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan want a federal judge to order state and Flint education officials to screen and evaluate all Flint schoolchildren for health and education disabilities stemming from the lead water crisis.

The ACLU of Michigan filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of a group of Flint schoolchildren last October, alleging ongoing violations of disability laws by the Michigan Department of Education and Flint Community Schools. The group said the additional demands the lead crisis places on the education system, specifically to identify and serve affected children, requires state and local authorities to take immediate steps to fulfill their legal obligations.

On Monday, ACLU attorneys filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow to issue a preliminary injunction ordering education officials to evaluate all children in Flint for possible disabilities in ways recommended by experts through a screening and neuropsychological evaluation process. In the motion, attorneys for the ACLU say lead’s presence in the blood is transient, and the window for detection through blood lead level testing is short-lived. “The use of blood testing as a barometer of harm at this juncture is thus foreclosed. While lead dissipates in […]

Full article: ACLU wants Flint kids screened for impact of lead

More about Flint, Michigan’s water crisis:

Flint Water Crisis Deaths Likely Surpass Official Toll

Watchdog says lack of EPA oversight helped cause ‘catastrophic’ Flint water crisis

Fraudulence in Flint: How Suspect Science Helped Declare the Water Crisis Over

Will Smith, Jaden Smith’s biz will donate water to Flint until lead down in schools

Local sorority raises $20,000 to help Flint’s water crisis

Study: Fewer pregnancies, more fetal deaths in Flint after lead levels rose in water