A teacher at PS 87 has sued the Education Department, claiming that the department didn’t warn teachers after finding lead in water coming from school faucets, the Daily News reported.
“Rachael Genicoff, who has worked at PS 87 on W. 78th St. since 2007, claims she has lead poisoning, as well as a variety of kidney and pain-related ailments, because she unwittingly drank from a tainted water fountain in her classroom.
Genicoff alleges the city Education Department had discovered dangerous lead levels in March 2016 — but didn’t tell students and staff until Feb. 3.”
Genicoff’s suit says her lead level is 2.5 times as high as it should be. The Kindergarten teacher took medical leave from December 2014 to December 2016, and now believes that her ailments were connected to the high lead levels. An April report found that two faucets at PS 87 had high lead levels, including one in Genicoff’s classroom.
A department spokesman told the Daily News that the water at schools “meets or exceeds all state and federal health and safety guidelines” and that any faucet found to have higher lead levels is immediately taking out of service to be remediated. The faucets at PS 87 have been repaired, the spokesman told the Daily News.
The department has been criticized in the past for using a potentially unreliable method for lead testing, though it has changed its practices.
