Joseph L. Block Middle School science teacher Darrell Scott with students Reyli Salas and Jorge Navarro

NAACP trains East Chicago residents to do their own lead testing

Contributed By:The 411 News

The devastating effects of lead contamination are borne mostly by the young. East Chicago’s West Calumet Housing Development is now empty; its residents evacuated because of toxic soils. Gone are the 400 families who lived there a year ago.

Soon, demolition crews will come to tear down the homes that sat on soil so contaminated with lead and arsenic that the city determined the property was unfit for habitation. Lead is known to slow and severely hamper brain development in the fetuses of pregnant women and in children under 6.

Some of those gone were students at Joseph L. Block Middle School last year.

The school was the site Tuesday morning as the NAACP kicked off its Community Science Project, six days of community training and learning sponsored by the civil rights organization’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program.

Block school is participating in the NAACP’s Our Community Scientists initiative to teach students how to conducts tests of water, soil, and air themselves. Later Tuesday, the project traveled to East Chicago’s Urban Enterprise Academy, the second stop on the kickoff tour.

Indiana State University designed the methods that students used in kits provided by the NAACP to collect samples in and around their homes. ISU scientists will analyze results of the students’ research.

Another partner, the Union of Concerned Scientists’ J.C. Kibbey said one lesson of the project’s training should be clear, “Science is not something that sits on the shelf or in a book; it’s something you use every day.”

On the last day of the project, at 10 a.m. Saturday, October 14, the partners will distribute free testing kits to the community at First Baptist Church, 4911 McCook Avenue.



You’re Going To Be The Experts We Look Up To: I’m so excited for you. You don’t realize it right now, but you, the next generation here at Block school is being prepared to pursue an interest in science and concern for the environment in hopes of preventing another environmental catastrophe. – Indiana State Senator Lonnie Randolph



Launch Of NAACP’s Our Community Scientists Program: While agencies and governments will continue to do what they’re doing, we’re empowering these students on the ground to do research and get information to protect themselves. They’re going to report their findings to scientists at Indiana State University, who will validate and return the results to the students and their families. – Denise Abdul-Rahman, Indiana NAACP Environmental & Climate Justice Chair



Collecting Samples: When taking soil samples, it was important for students to write down where the soil came from – close to the house or middle of the yard. Water samples had to be collected from kitchen or bathroom faucets. Students were instructed to turn on the faucet and collect the water sample immediately – not to let the water run. And they noted the sources of the sample. In daily science classes, they learn how results can vary because of human errors. – Darrell Scott, Block Middle School science teacher



Telling Their Stories: We’re going to show the students how to use their mobile phones to tell their own stories. Students will learn how to prepare their cell phone cameras to capture the best images and videos. They’ll learn some basic journalism rules. And they’ll learn how to distribute that information. – Gary Naylor, Frontrunner Media Next Generation, Indianapolis

Story Posted:10/13/2017