We filed a California Public Records Act request immediately after that response and kept researching. We also conducted interviews with students, many of whom rely on water fountains throughout the school day. At a Title I public high school with a majority-minority enrollment, these shut offs were clearly having significant effects.

While we waited on a response to our CPRA request, we attempted to interview school and district officials. All of them, including our principal, ignored or declined interview requests. We also found a 2017 California law requiring school districts to notify parents about lead found in school drinking water at a rate of 15 parts per billion or higher.

We began to write our article, while still waiting on a response to our CPRA request. In early March, we received the information we had asked for — 66 pages of lead testing data from across the district. The data showed that at our school, several of the water fountains had lead levels significantly above the 15 parts per billion threshold. One even tested for lead at 65.3 parts per billion.

We also found, through our CPRA request, that since 2018, more than 500 water fountains across the school district have tested for lead at a rate of 15 parts per billion or higher.

Shortly after receiving the records, we published our article. We are proud that our work did exactly what student reporting should do: hold those in power accountable and increase our community’s awareness of school issues. We couldn’t have done this without the state and federal open government laws that protect the public’s right to access information.