The Oaklandside’s Ashley McBride and Callie Rhoades have been honored by the First Amendment Coalition with its Free Speech and Open Government Award for their muckraking work on lead in the drinking water of Oakland’s public schools.
“This year’s winners truly embody the best of journalism and free expression. Their courage and tenacity uncovered critical stories that demanded to be told,” said David Snyder, the coalition’s executive director. “Last year saw relentless attacks on journalists and the media from our government and others, but these winners show good reason for optimism about the future of free expression and a free press.”
McBride, The Oaklandside’s education reporter, teamed up with Rhoades, The Oaklandside’s former nature and the city reporter, on a series of articles that explored the lead contamination crisis in Oakland Unified School District schools. As the judges pointed out, the pair filed dozens of Public Records Act requests over many months to learn what led to the crisis, how the district bungled its response, and whether the district’s 34,000 students were finally safe. They found that students and teachers were drinking from contaminated water sources for months after contamination was discovered and that remediation was incomplete years after lead was first detected back in 2017.
“Following their series, the district has committed to several transparency reforms, including notifying school communities of lab test reports within 72 hours; creating a public dashboard online that summarizes test results; and establishing an automatic system that notifies school leaders about new test results,” the coalition wrote. “The school board allocated $20.5 million for lead abatement efforts.”
This year’s honorees also include Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray, and Ricardo “Raoul” Poole for a documentary film, “The Alabama Solution,” about abuses in the Alabama State Prison system, and Brian Howey, Jerry Mitchell, Mukta Joshi, Nate Rosenfield, Najib Aminy, and Steph Quinn of Mississippi Today, who partnered with The New York Times and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting to investigate the brutal treatment of people in county custody.
“I’m thrilled to see Ashley and Callie’s dogged work get this recognition,” said Esther Kaplan, deputy editor of The Oaklandside. “Ashley broke the story of the lead contamination crisis, and then she and Callie just kept digging until they’d exposed all that went wrong at the district. I’m especially grateful, as a public school parent, that they kept on the story until the district finally said it had guaranteed safe drinking water for all of our kids.”
“As the only dedicated Oakland schools reporter, I knew it would be up to me and The Oaklandside to dig in and find out how the district allowed a lapse like this to happen, and hold them accountable to fixing the problem,” McBride said. “We’re so humbled and grateful for this recognition, and we’re glad to provide this service to Oakland’s students and families.”
The First Amendment Coalition is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works to advance a free press, freedom of expression, and the people’s right to know in the state of California.
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