VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Taking Action: One mothers fight to protect Syracuse’s children from lead
(Sounds of typing on a keyboard)
Max Williams: If you you type in her name she is… everywhere and it all started from a letter from the health department,
Medley: “I finally ripped it open and looked and oh my twins have lead and you think someone would have come and knocked on my door?!”
Williams: This was the start of a.. very.. long journey for Darlene Medley. A mother of 9 who’s twin boys Rashad and Devon at the age of 2 were told by the health department they have elevated levels of lead in their blood after a required health check… But she didn’t know the extent of the damage until one day after school Rasahd came home with a message no parent.. ever …wants to hear.
Medley:“He tells me, Mama, I just don’t want to talk anymore. And I remember asking my baby, why? And you say it because it takes him a long time to get it out and people don’t want to listen to him. That day I had a rough day.”
Williams: Darlene learned her home contained lead paint after a City Code Enforcement test that’s when Child Protective Services forced her out of this home but was then able to move into this lead free house. Years later the threat of lead wasn’t gone like thousands of other homes in Syracuse who also get their drinking water from lead pipes in fact already 1 in 10 of the city’s children have been poisoned by lead.
Medley: “They could care less. They’re hoping that we destroy ourselves.”
Williams: Darlene started Lead Families for Freedom Now an organization that advocates against lead and demand the city do more.. For 6 years she has spent countless hours at school board and city council meetings delivering one message.
Medley: “You’re poisoning, you’re just poisoning kids. Knowingly poison kids.”
Medley: They’re telling me, oh, we’re doing better than the EPA, and then come to find out you were doing way worse.
Williams: This report was the first hint of the extent of the city’s problems. An outside testing company found one school’s water fountain tested at 255 parts per billion; that’s 50 times more than the state’s safe level of 5. The district said that they fixed the fixture but one month later the same fountain tested at 48 parts per billion, nearly ten times higher than the safe level….
Medley: No documentation ever came home from the schools. Saying, hey, so-and-so water fountain that so- The same way that the community found out, it’s pretty much how the parents found out.
Williams: In this map provided by the city each blue dot indicates that lead pipes aren’t just connected to schools but the taps of almost every home across the city.
Travis Hobart: I think it’s been a crisis.
Williams: Travis Hobart is a Pediatrician at Upstate Medical University he says it’s a problem he has to continue to treat children for lead poisoning.
Hobart: As soon as you have lead in your body, it’s starting to affect your IQ. It’s a brain toxin.
Williams: The city says it will take at least 5 years to replace 14,000 lead contaminated pipes meaning Syracue won’t be lead free until 2030 something Darlene warned the city of.. months ago.
Williams: Why didn’t they trust you, you know from the start?
Medley: Cuz that would mean that somebody would have to take accountability. That’s Syracuse’s biggest problem to me. Nobody here wants to take accountability.
Williams: Darlene says she plans to sue the city over her son’s lead poisoning in the meantime she is using her own money to buy water filters and hand them out to families nearby.
Medley: I might never get the recognition for it and I honestly don’t do it for that. I do it because I want my community to know that you have rights, you have a choice, and your child, because of the color of their skin, should not be poisoned by lead.
Williams: In Syracuse. Max Williams. NCC News.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – It took a single letter from the Onondaga County Health Department to change one Syracuse woman’s life.
“I finally ripped it open and looked and — oh — my twins have lead,” Medley recalled. “And you think someone would have come and knocked on my door?!”
Darlene Medley, a mother of nine, learned that her 2-year-old twin boys, Rashad and Devon, had elevated levels of lead in their blood following a required lead and iron blood test. She didn’t realize the extent of the damage until one afternoon, Rashad came home from school with a message no parent wants to hear.
“He tells me, ‘Mama, I just don’t want to talk anymore. I remember asking my baby why, and he says it’s because it takes him a long time to get it out, and people don’t want to listen to him. That day, I had a rough day,” said Medley, wiping away tears.
A City Code Enforcement inspection later confirmed her home contained lead paint. That’s when Child Protective Services intervened, forcing her family to relocate but with nowhere to go. Thanks to a donor, Medley was able to move into a lead-free home.
After a few years, Medley realized the threat of lead wasn’t gone, but she wasn’t alone. Thousands of homes in Syracuse like hers had been connected to lead service lines, part of a widespread infrastructure problem in the city. As of this year, Health officials estimate that one in ten children in Syracuse has been poisoned by lead.
“They could care less. They’re hoping that we destroy ourselves,” Medley said.
Determined to take action, she founded Lead Families for Freedom Now, an advocacy group calling for more city accountability. Medley has spoken at school board and city council meetings for the past six years, demanding a lead-free city.
“You’re just poisoning kids,” Medley said. “Knowingly poisoning kids. They’re telling me, ‘Oh, we’re doing better than the EPA,’ and then come to find out you were doing way worse.”
An outside testing company report revealed that one school’s water fountain contained 255 parts per billion of lead, more than 50 times the state’s acceptable level of 5 ppb. Although the district said the fixture was replaced, the same fountain tested at 48 ppb a month later.
“No documentation ever came home from the schools saying, Hey, so-and-so water fountain (was contaminated). The same way the community found out — it’s pretty much how the parents found out,” Medley said.
Even local doctors are fed up, stating they are tired of treating children for lead poisoning.
“It’s been a crisis,” said Dr. Travis Hobart, a pediatrician at Upstate Medical University who treats children exposed to lead. “As soon as you have lead in your body, it’s starting to affect your IQ. It’s a brain toxin.”
The city estimates it will take at least five more years to replace more than 14,000 lead service lines, meaning Syracuse likely won’t be lead-free until 2030. Medley said she warned officials of the problem months before the city decided to take action.
“That’s Syracuse’s biggest problem to me. Nobody here wants to take accountability,” Medley said, shaking her head.
Medley plans to sue the city over her sons’ exposure to lead. In the meantime, she uses her own money to buy water filters and hand them out to nearby families.
“I might never get the recognition for it, and I honestly don’t do it for that,” Medley said. “I do it because I want my community to know that you have rights, you have a choice, and your child, because of the color of their skin, should not be poisoned by lead.”