Newark Parents Demand Widespread Testing Amid Concerns Over Lead In Water At City Schools

NEWARK, N. J. (CBSNewYork) -- It was a two-pronged parent protest in Newark on Wednesday, with one taking place at city hall for a council meeting and another being held at Arts High School.

Parents say city and school officials are not working with a sense of urgency to address concerns over lead in the water at Newark schools.

"The taxpayers and the children of Newark will not stand by and allow this crisis, which is in proportion to what's going on in Flint, to go on and not be answered," Donna Jackson told 1010 WINS' Al Jones.

As CBS2's Tony Aiello reported on Tuesday, the Newark School District last week turned off water at 30 schools after test results revealed unsafe lead levels. The Newark city health director announced Tuesday that blood tests will be offered to 17,000 students at those 30 schools for lead.

Parents say all 50,000 students should be tested.

Some parents will not wait for the blood testing sites to be up and running. Antoine Curry said he was going to have his kids tested on their own, and admitted that he had some mistrust in the school system.

"I feel like the school knew about this personally, I think, before they even contacted the parents," Curry said.

Curry's mistrust comes from the recent revelation that schools knew about the lead in the water, and were taking steps to reduce it, more than a year before parents were told.

"I do not believe that only the schools, the water in the schools is contaminated. I believe that water is contaminated all over the city due to faulty pipes," parent Kyata Hendricks said.

The water supply in Newark is fine, officials have emphasized. Old pipes and fittings inside aging buildings are to blame for the spike in lead levels.

With schools off next week, parents say the time is right to flush pipes, test for lead, and install filters.