GLOCESTER – Sixteen Ponaganset High School students participated in Lead Renovators Remodelers training over February vacation this year, using their own time to get an education on the hazard while earning certification from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Rhode Island Department of Health.
Construction technology teacher Charlie Myers notes that the program is the only one of its kind in the country, allowing students to earn the certification while still in high school.
“It’s a really important thing and I just hope that by training my students like this – I’ve been doing this for 15 years – that I can reduce the number of kids that have to go through this,” Myers said.
The Foster Glocester School Committee recognized students who completed the certification at their meeting on Tuesday, April 7.
Myers, who teaches with the school’s construction and manufacturing CTE program, previously taught the certification while at Woonsocket Area Career and Technical Center, and brought it with him years ago when he started work at PHS.
The city of Woonsocket, he noted, had the highest rate of lead poisoning in the country in 2004.
“It’s really an important thing that we understand about lead paint – about how little it takes,” Myers said, noting a single sugar packet of lead could poison 4,400 children. “Once they’re poisoned, it can impact their brain and it can never be undone.”
“You can get that from burning scrap wood in your bonfire with paint on it,” he said.
The symptoms of lead poisoning, Myers noted, are many, from difficulty learning language or math, to behavioral problems and ADHD.
“Strangely enough, we also led the world with the most ADD and ADHD diagnoses,” he said of the city’s unfortunate stat.
Children ages six and under are at the highest risk for developmental damage, and Myers noted that 78 percent of those affected by lead get it when their homes is remodeled.
“As you get older, it’s not as serious,” said the teacher.
Myers noted the poisoning has long-lasting effects, and can even be passed on to a child during pregnancy as much as ten years later.
“If you get lead poisoning, it gets stored in your bones,” he said. “Your body thinks it’s calcium. It takes a tiny, tiny amount of lead to impact the kid.”
The certification is optional and not a requirement for graduation from the Construction CTE, and many of its latest crop of young graduates were present at the School Committee meeting this week.
“These are the only 16 students in the United States of America that have earned these credentials in high school,” said Myers.
Participants in the class learn to identify and remove lead particles, a skill they can use either on a job site or in pursuit of a future career.
Supt. Renee Palazzo thanked the teacher for his efforts.
“He does it on his own time,” said Palazzo. “Our students benefit from it, and it’s not what you see in other high schools.”
“It’s because he had a desire, a passion,” Palazzo added. “Thank you for giving them the opportunity.”
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