In 2016, when Shakima Thomas first found out that the water was being shutdown in 30 Newark schools, her mind raced through a set of nerve-wracking possibilities. Immediately, she thought back to her own memories of grade school days as a kid at Dayton Street Elementary School in the South Ward in Newark, New Jersey. Thomas had read about the detrimental effects that lead exposure could cause in children — behavior and learning problems, slowed growth, and lower IQ. She thought about the possibility that she and her peers, some of whom had histories of violent behavior, had consumed lead contaminated water. She worried that her then two-year-old son could have been exposed to lead. When Thomas tried to inquire more about the water at a community meeting, she was reassured by the city that the lead contamination was limited to the schools and that they had matters under control.
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