OUSD lead crisis: Internal records reveal panic and confusion among school leaders

Editor’s be aware: We’re republishing a few of our greatest reads of 2025. Our training reporter, Ashley McBride, and environmental reporter Callie Rhoades teamed as much as perform the definitive investigation into the lead-exposure disaster in Oakland’s public colleges. On the lookout for the receipts? From inner emails to consuming water lab experiences, they’ve bought them. This story initially appeared in July.

However when the assembly opened as much as public remark, it abruptly turned clear {that a} scandal was unfolding.  

The feedback started with educators, mother and father, and advocates talking about constitution colleges and a plan to redevelop the district’s outdated headquarters. Then, about half-hour in, a contingent of employees and households from Frick United Academy of Language, an East Oakland center college, approached the microphone. First was Catherine Cotter, the varsity’s counselor.

“The opposite day, we bought a report that the kids on the college may now not drink the water at our faculty,” she stated. “As a faculty counselor, I’ve to lift up any inequities that I see; that’s my job. We’re demanding secure consuming water for our college students instantly, transparency about what’s occurring, and why we weren’t informed this till the opposite day.”

Then a Frick trainer, Ella Each-Wortman, stepped as much as the lectern and raised the temperature, excoriating the board for “endangering” the varsity neighborhood.

“College students and employees have been consuming water, water that was recognized to be contaminated in April till August, together with all through summer season college,” they stated. “This delay on the a part of OUSD is negligent, it’s carelessness, and it’ll impression the well being of our youngsters for years to come back.”

The day earlier than, employees and households at Frick had acquired a message from the district that some water fixtures on campus have been present process repairs due to lead contamination. Frick’s principal additionally acquired the precise lab report, which she shared with lecturers and employees. It was dated April 16 — 4 months earlier.

That report, which the district later posted on-line, confirmed that a lot of taps and consuming fountains had lead ranges far greater than the district’s commonplace of 5 components per billion. The very best was a consuming fountain whose water had examined at 51 components per billion, ten occasions the extent the district thought of secure. College students and employees had probably been consuming lead-contaminated water for months.

“What’s the line between neglect and hatred?” Cassandra Lizardi Morales, one other Frick trainer, stated that evening. “We’d like repairs and filtered water expeditiously, and we’d like justice.”

Over the approaching days and weeks, the district would submit outcomes from the primary 40 colleges that have been examined between April and August, and the total scope of the issue would start to take form. 

It wasn’t simply Frick. The district had found harmful ranges of lead at dozens of its colleges the earlier spring — spanning elementary, center, and excessive colleges in East Oakland and West Oakland, from the flatlands to the hills. However the principals of these colleges and their lecturers, employees, and college students have been all left at the hours of darkness in regards to the harmful contamination till simply earlier than the brand new college yr started in August.

‘It’s not only one job, it’s a number of jobs’

On the subsequent assembly two weeks later, district leaders acknowledged the breakdown, citing “gaps in communication, workflow, and the flexibility to conduct testing and talk correctly.” A mean of two months handed between when colleges have been examined and when websites have been notified. E mail exchanges obtained by The Oaklandside present a extremely disjointed course of, with college principals desperately looking for updates and steering from the district whereas attempting to stave off panic from lecturers, employees, and fogeys, all alarmed that they or their college students could be ingesting contaminated water.

Some campuses had hosted summer season college, which meant college students have been probably utilizing college water fountains and sinks for months after the district had alarming check leads to hand. 

Lead publicity is especially harmful for youngsters and might trigger studying disabilities, developmental delays, and mind injury. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has maintained that no stage of lead is secure; since 2018, district coverage has stated lead ranges at school consuming water mustn’t exceed 5 components per billion. Lead poisoning instances in California primarily come from paint, mud, and soil, however analysis has discovered that even low-level publicity to lead-contaminated consuming water has been related to elevated blood lead ranges in youngsters. Students who studied the water disaster in Flint, Michigan, noticed blood lead ranges in youngsters increase two-fold after they started consuming contaminated water.   

That August, many colleges, together with Frick, Hillcrest Okay-8, and Laurel Elementary realized for the primary time that their ranges have been 10 or 20 occasions the OUSD cap; different colleges, comparable to Lincoln Elementary and Edna Brewer Center Faculty, realized a few of their sinks and fountains had ranges that have been 100 occasions the district’s restrict.

District leaders have stated that the district’s shifting testing protocols led to the lapses in communication. 

“A correct testing plan ought to have been developed together with a corresponding communications plan, which ought to have been reviewed by concerned groups and departments,” John Sasaki, OUSD’s director of communication, informed The Oaklandside. “All of it ought to have been accredited previous to the implementation of adjustments in present testing protocols.”

By final summer season, the district’s Clear Ingesting Water coverage had lengthy been in place, accredited in 2018 after harmful lead ranges have been found within the consuming water at McClymonds Excessive Faculty. The coverage mandates pattern testing of consumable water sources at each district-owned property and early childhood training heart, whether or not hallway consuming fountains or kitchen sinks. Across the identical time, a brand new regulation took impact, Assembly Bill 746, which required college districts to check the consuming water in buildings constructed earlier than 2010 and remediate any sources discovered to have lead greater than 15 components per billion.

The OUSD coverage is stricter than the state mandate: If lead ranges have been above 5 components per billion, the supply is to be taken out of service, repaired — sometimes by including a filter — and retested. Critically, the coverage requires the district to inform lecturers, employees, and fogeys inside one enterprise day of receiving outcomes with lead ranges greater than 5 components per billion and to submit these check experiences publicly. 

In a latest interview with The Oaklandside, Preston Thomas, OUSD’s chief techniques and providers officer, who oversees services, buildings and grounds, and different departments, stated the communication failures final yr have been largely as a result of the district left testing and inner communication within the arms of a single staff — danger administration — and, in the long run, to 1 particular person. That particular person was Sorbor Twegbe, OUSD’s environmental well being and security supervisor, who was left primarily chargeable for a wide selection of vital features, from arranging water testing and receiving check outcomes to informing college leaders of these outcomes and creating remediation work orders to information the district’s upkeep groups.

Twegbe, who information present has been on depart from OUSD since August, has not responded to a number of requests for remark. Sasaki wouldn’t touch upon whether or not Twegbe was on depart or whether or not his depart was associated to the communication failures surrounding the lead testing outcomes.

“The communications failures weren’t the fault of 1 particular person, they have been a failure of our system that didn’t have the protocols in place to stop this sort of breakdown from occurring,” Sasaki stated. “The district has since put in place techniques to stop that form of breakdown from occurring once more.”

Now, Thomas stated, the district has assembled a staff of individuals from danger administration, buildings and grounds, services, and communications who collectively oversee lead testing, remediation, and communications.

“For a district of our dimension, given the variety of college websites and the variety of properties that we’ve got, to have one particular person maintain all the weather that I’m speaking about is the place the system wanted to have higher staffing to handle that,” Thomas informed The Oaklandside. “As a result of it’s not only one job, it’s a number of jobs.”

A summer season of confusion

Inner emails from the weeks main as much as the beginning of college final yr present widespread confusion amongst college employees about which water sources have been secure. 

Mandated testing of OUSD preschools had begun within the fall of 2023, and the district started testing elementary, center, and excessive colleges the next April. Outcomes reached Twegbe beginning in April and continued by way of June and July.

However many college principals have been unaware the testing was even occurring, in accordance with information and interviews; through the summer season specifically, services and different upkeep work can usually imply employees come by way of colleges for any variety of causes.

The emails present that Twegbe circulated check outcomes to some services employees that spring, copying senior leaders on the district, as questions got here up, comparable to one April 24, 2024, e mail to a district plumber about fixtures at Bella Vista Elementary Faculty, east of Lake Merritt, which had 17 fixtures with elevated check outcomes.

However it wasn’t till July 19, 2024, some months into that spherical of testing, that Twegbe gave what seems to be his first full replace in an e mail to danger administration, buildings and grounds, and custodial groups on the central workplace in regards to the district lead testing, saying that the method was effectively underway, with 100% of center colleges full, 60% of elementary websites full, and 43% of excessive colleges. In that e mail, Twegbe stated he was creating tags for the plumbing groups to go to college websites the place water fountains had elevated lead ranges to restore these fixtures by Aug. 12, the primary day of college. Twegbe wrote that he would additionally ask the custodial groups to “bag and tag” the fixtures and take them out of service in the event that they weren’t repaired in time.

Twegbe emailed Cleveland Elementary principal Peter Van Tassel on July 22 to let him know that check outcomes had revealed elevated lead ranges at six places inside the varsity, from 5.7 components per billion in a single classroom fountain to a cafeteria sink measuring a surprising 480 components per billion, practically 100 occasions the district’s allowable restrict. Twegbe wrote that he had created a piece order for the plumbing staff and that when repairs have been full, the fixtures can be examined once more. The e-mail included images of the sinks in query with “out of order” indicators taped to them. Van Tassel thanked Twegbe for the heads up. 

Information present that the district had acquired the outcomes practically a month earlier, on June 27.

On August 2, Crocker Highlands principal Kim-Dung Nguyen despatched an e mail to Twegbe after working into him on her campus, expressing her shock that lead testing was underway there: “Sadly, I used to be not conscious that you just have been testing our faculty water for lead, and that you just had recognized a lot of areas with lead. Please advise any extra data that you’d be speaking with our faculty neighborhood.”

Twegbe responded to Nguyen the identical day, clarifying that the water had been examined throughout summer season break whereas college was out and that 14 fixtures producing lead-contaminated water had been taken out of service for repairs and can be retested earlier than being introduced again on-line. 

Information present that lead testing had been performed at Crocker Highlands on June 18, and people outcomes got here again on June 27, greater than a month earlier than Twegbe looped in Principal Nguyen. Fourteen consuming water sources on the college had excessive ranges of lead, together with the sink in Room 21 measuring 47 components per billion, a fountain in the primary hallway measuring 98 components per billion, and the sink in Room 22 measuring 440 components per billion. 

On Aug. 5, every week earlier than college was set to start, Nguyen wrote that she was involved in regards to the restricted communication and reiterated that she had solely lately been made conscious that her college was being examined for lead. 

“Final week, July twenty ninth – August 2nd, myself, and members of my staff have been already within the constructing using the sinks and water fountains,” she wrote of the times earlier than she heard from Twegbe. “The sinks and water fountains have been left uncovered, and no signage till mid-afternoon of Friday, August 2nd.”

Lecturers can be returning to campus on Aug. 7, she wrote, and the scholars would arrive 5 days after that. “What’s the timeline on when this matter can be remediated? What communication will the varsity district ship to households and employees? Please advise.”

In an e mail in a while Aug. 5, Sabrina Moore, the central workplace administrator overseeing a bunch of elementary colleges together with Crocker Highlands, emailed Rebecca Littlejohn, OUSD’s danger administration officer, relaying Nguyen’s issues about employees and college students returning to campus. “Do you’ve gotten steering for principals about lead within the water? What to share with employees / households? Are you aware when Dr. Nguyen can anticipate this to be resolved? Subsequent steps?” 

Littlejohn replied that water testing is commonplace follow and that water testing is required each 5 years. “Since college was out and Sorbor had a break in his schedule, he had the water examined,” she wrote. “Once we spoke I let him know that we should always make sure that to e mail even when college is out.”

Every week later, on the primary day of college, one other central workplace staffer emailed buildings and grounds to ask when the fixtures at Crocker Highlands can be turned again on, as a result of the entrance workplace had no working taps. 

Information present that retesting at Crocker Highlands occurred on Sept. 5, 4 weeks into the beginning of the varsity yr; the outcomes got here again on Sept 13. At that time, two of the varsity’s examined water sources nonetheless had elevated lead ranges. 

Again at Cleveland on Aug. 9, principal Van Tassel adopted up in one other e mail to Twegbe to say he noticed indicators and baggage on some fixtures however not others, leaving him unclear which consuming fountains and taps had been examined and located to be secure. Employees and volunteers had been on the college, out and in of lecture rooms, making ready to welcome college students again to campus, a supply on the college informed The Oaklandside, and a few may have eliminated the indicators or baggage.

With college beginning in a couple of days, Van Tassel stated, the kitchen sink — the one which had measured at 480 components per billion — would should be rapidly repaired and made secure for serving college students breakfast and lunch. The district’s custodial providers director responded the identical day to say dietary providers was conscious that the cafeteria sink was out of service and can be sending over meals from the district’s central kitchen. Twegbe responded that the sinks that weren’t bagged or labeled had handed the water check and that the plumbing staff was engaged on repairs. He didn’t say when the sink can be mounted. 

At Edna Brewer Center Faculty in Glenview, water was examined on April 27, information present, and the district acquired the leads to early Could. A kitchen sink had one of many highest lead ranges within the district – 540 components per billion. A sink in one other room measured 270, and a consuming fountain 180. However the information didn’t attain website management or employees till August. As lecturers returned to high school Aug. 9, the Friday earlier than college started, to arrange their lecture rooms, a member of the custodial employees informed a trainer that the sinks needed to be shut off as a result of there was lead within the water, principal Jonathan Tran informed The Oaklandside. 

Tran, who was coming into his first yr as principal, stated he instantly reached out to the central workplace and bought in contact with the danger administration, custodial, and services groups to type out what was happening. 

“What they have been in a position to do was supply a name, they usually got here within the subsequent day, on Saturday, to start repairs and clarify to me what the outcomes meant,” Tran stated. 

Whereas Tran didn’t study till August that water had been examined at his college in April, he informed The Oaklandside it was doable he may’ve missed an e mail from earlier within the yr. 

“Initially, I used to be alarmed merely due to the dearth of messaging that’s clear and concise to our neighborhood,” he stated. 

Members of the remediation staff got here out the day after he known as and defined the outcomes and the restore course of, all of which reassured Tran that the district was taking issues severely. He stated the data he gleaned additionally helped him clarify the problem to households. He realized that the sink measuring 540 components per billion had been flushed; when it was sampled once more, lead ranges had dropped to eight.1 components per billion. That sink had been out of use for some time, Tran stated, main employees to consider the preliminary check could have measured water that had been sitting within the pipes.

“Having that proof and clarification helps me be capable of reply questions after they come up,” he stated.

However the district’s spotty communication would proceed to stoke nervousness.

On Aug. 10, OUSD’s center colleges superintendent, Clifford Hong, emailed danger administration, buildings and grounds, services, and custodial employees, asking if there have been any remaining dangers to Edna Brewer college students and employees due to the lead. “Threat or no danger,” he wrote, “how ought to employees obtain communication in regards to the state of issues?” 

In one other e mail the next morning, a Sunday, Hong wrote that Edna Brewer employees have been alarmed in regards to the widespread presence of lead within the college’s water and requested for an estimated date of completion for remediation on the college.

In an interview with The Oaklandside, Hong stated a lot of his concern got here from not realizing the extent and exact ranges of contamination. 

“The state and federal requirements for water security is 15 components per billion, however OUSD is 5, and that’s the place I wasn’t clear with the experiences,” Hong stated. “I didn’t have entry to the experiences on the time, so I didn’t know if it was like 90% of the taps are above 15 components per billion, or is it 1 out of 40 which can be above 15 and the remaining are between 5 and 14 — it simply wasn’t clear.”

Twegbe responded that he’d examine on the standing of the work. He stated that when the repairs have been executed, the district would retest and he anticipated to obtain outcomes one to a few days later. In one other follow-up, Twegbe included the precise places and lead ranges for the elevated fixtures at Edna Brewer. 

The identical day, August 11, Tran wrote to Twegbe to underscore the misery of his college and employees, a lot of whom had labored in lecture rooms and used sinks that subsequently examined for terribly excessive ranges of lead. “I wish to cocreate a plan for the long run to stop panic and legal responsibility,” he wrote.

Since then, he’s been stored within the loop relating to follow-up testing and repairs, Tran informed The Oaklandside.  

Principal Tom Felix, at Oakland Worldwide Excessive Faculty, a small highschool in Temescal that serves new immigrant college students, didn’t hear from Twegbe till the day earlier than college students have been set to reach final August. Twegbe’s e mail stated elevated lead ranges had been measured at one location on the college, a consuming fountain, measuring 5.3 components per billion. A piece order had been created for repairs, Twegbe wrote, and custodial employees had been directed to take the consuming fountain out of service.

Felix responded that the information “has triggered some nervousness round employees” and requested for written details about the testing course of and secure ranges of lead that he may share along with his staff. Twegbe responded, in an obvious effort to reassure Felix, that the Environmental Safety Company considers ranges as much as 15 components per billion acceptable, whereas the district has a “far more stringent” commonplace of 5 components per billion.

Whereas the EPA requires remediation at 15 components per billion or greater, the company additionally says there may be no safe level of publicity to guide.

The identical day, someday earlier than college begins, Twegbe had despatched an e mail to OUSD’s community superintendents — the central workplace directors who every oversee teams of faculties — informing them that water testing had taken place in accordance with the district’s clear consuming water coverage.

Nonetheless, it appeared that the information had not reached everybody. Hong, the center college community superintendent, replied, “Looks like some college leaders are getting this data, in addition to steered communications, whereas others are usually not.”

Thomas, the district’s chief techniques and providers officer, informed The Oaklandside it had been difficult to get communication out to varsities throughout the fast turnaround time that college board coverage requires. 

What’s wanted going ahead, he stated, is “getting tight across the fashion and kind of communication that goes out and having particular scripts which can be developed for every circumstance across the testing, in order that it’s not left as much as particular person principals.”

A ‘maddening’ begin to the varsity yr

As tens of hundreds of scholars arrived for the primary week of college, inner emails present district directors scrambling over the right way to stability transparency with reassurance. It wasn’t till college students have been already at their desks that your entire college neighborhood was knowledgeable in regards to the extent of the elevated lead ranges — and the standing of the repairs and retesting. 

On the second day of college, Aug. 13, Thomas emailed the varsity board, then superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell, and different senior management, saying that latest testing had revealed elevated ranges of lead within the consuming water at 22 colleges after testing 40 websites, or about half of the district’s colleges. He reiterated the district’s lead coverage and stated that his staff had knowledgeable all the impacted college principals and was drafting a message to ship to oldsters and employees by way of ParentSquare, the communications app utilized by the district. The fixtures displaying elevated lead ranges had been turned off and labeled, he stated, college students can be directed to FloWater water filtration stations, and the buildings and grounds groups can be engaged on repairs and retests. 

The primary ParentSquare notices went out on Aug. 13, 2024, 4 months after the district had most of the check leads to hand. The message alerted households on the impacted colleges that water testing had recognized lead contamination at their college website, that these fixtures had been labeled out of order and brought offline, and that work was underway to restore drawback water fixtures.

The district didn’t tackle the general public in regards to the lead publicity disaster till the following day, August 14, after employees and households from Frick and different colleges demanded solutions on the first college board assembly of the yr. 

For the primary time, on Aug. 19, a ParentSquare message went out to lecturers, employees, mother and father, and neighborhood members all through the district explaining that water high quality testing was underway, with 40 colleges examined to this point, and that elevated lead ranges had been discovered at 186 water fixtures. All of the fixtures that examined beneath the district’s restrict of 5 components per billion have been in service and the district had put in at the very least one FloWater water bottle filling station at each college, the message stated. OUSD inspired college students and employees to make use of the FloWater machines as commonplace follow. The message, signed by the district’s danger administration staff, stated the restore work was estimated to take a number of weeks.

The message additionally acknowledged the lapses in communication between when testing occurred and when college websites have been notified, and made a dedication to informing college communities inside 72 hours of receiving the check experiences going ahead.

“Regardless of our consideration to element and look after our websites, we didn’t talk successfully to the members of every college neighborhood because the testing launched, as we acquired the outcomes, and as fixes have been being applied,” the message stated. “We’re placing techniques in place to make sure a scarcity of efficient communication doesn’t happen once more, and that college communities obtain fast discover when this sort of testing is happening on their campuses.”

Because the district’s public communications sought to convey calm and a way that issues have been beneath management, central workplace employees have been frantically sending spreadsheets forwards and backwards, monitoring the standing of testing and repairs, and modifying Google docs with extra messages to the general public. Their notes betray their sense of disaster.

In an Aug. 13 touch upon a draft labeled “Lead Testing FAQ,” Sailaja Suresh, OUSD’s then-executive director of techniques and providers, writes, “It’s maddening to not have extra, clear data on the market. Principals have to be ridiculously confused about this.”

At 10:13 p.m. that evening, after the second day of college had come to a detailed, Thomas emailed Twegbe and Littlejohn. Thomas wrote that it was vital to get all the varsity testing experiences onto the district’s web site — as required by district coverage. It could take them till the weekend of Aug. 17 and 18 earlier than all the spring testing outcomes have been publicly posted.

In one other Google Doc draft with lead updates that may ultimately change into the Aug. 19 ParentSquare message, communications and central workplace employees commute on the right way to body the messaging, given the district’s less-than-optimal dealing with of the disaster.

Sasaki, OUSD’s director of communications, provides up the primary draft with a remark: “Here’s a proposed message for the neighborhood in regards to the lead testing of our water shops. I went into some fairly good element, so we could need to dial a few of it again. However let me know what you assume.”

Curtiss Sarikey, OUSD chief of employees, asks if one line ought to learn, “We have now instantly taken all fixtures out of service.”

Sasaki responds, “I don’t assume it was speedy, sadly.”

Thomas, the district’s techniques chief, edits a line in regards to the district offering bottles and cups at colleges, deleting the phrase “cups” from the sentence. Sasaki asks, “What if children don’t have bottles?” Thomas replies, “They need to deliver them … we don’t have cups for teenagers at this level.”

The ultimate message emphasised that the district’s requirements for lead remediation have been extra strict than state and federal pointers, and that water from the vast majority of the fixtures examined had fallen inside district requirements. On the time, the district was conducting randomized pattern testing and didn’t transfer to testing all consuming fountains till later within the fall, district officers stated. 

In the meantime, within the hours main as much as the Aug. 14 college board assembly the place the disaster would spill into public view, Littlejohn, the OUSD danger administration officer, fired an e mail off to Twegbe attempting to get readability in regards to the testing at Frick and why, if the varsity was examined in April, the varsity neighborhood was not knowledgeable in regards to the elevated lead ranges till July.

“That’s gonna come up tonight on the board assembly,” Littlejohn wrote.

Twegbe resurfaced an e mail chain from 2018, the final time the water had been examined at Frick, notifying website directors that three taps had examined above the district’s commonplace of 5 components per billion at the moment, with outcomes starting from 10 to fifteen components per billion, and forwarded it to Littlejohn. He additionally defined the timeline: Frick’s water was examined for lead in 2018, and at the moment he despatched an e mail informing Frick’s leaders and notified buildings and grounds, asking the restore staff to let him know when the work was completed. The standing of these 2018 repairs was unknown, Twegbe wrote in his e mail to Littlejohn, saying he was “not notified of any repairs being full.”

In April 2024, Frick was examined once more, Twegbe wrote. He created one other work order to restore the issue fixtures. This time, 5 fixtures had elevated lead ranges, starting from a water fountain close to the women’ fitness center at 8.4 components per billion to a hallway consuming fountain measuring 51 components per billion. He famous that this group of drawback fixtures included the three that have been flagged for restore in 2018.

(After the water testing in 2017 and 2018, consuming fountains with elevated lead ranges have been faraway from service, and generally, the fixtures have been repaired or changed or a filter was added, Thomas, the techniques chief, informed The Oaklandside. “In a couple of cases, the supply remained out of service,” he stated.)

Littlejohn requested once more why there was a lag between testing and notification: “OK, right here is the place we’re going to have pushback from the board and I’ll want to have the ability to tackle why B&G [buildings and grounds] or the positioning wasn’t notified till July. Are you able to give me some readability on this?” 

Twegbe once more famous that a number of the drawback fixtures had been recognized beforehand, within the 2018 spherical of testing, saying that website leaders had been conscious since then that some fixtures wanted to be remediated. He forwarded Littlejohn one other e mail from 2020 that he’d despatched to Frick’s then-principal and neighborhood colleges supervisor reiterating that a number of fixtures had examined constructive for lead and have been out of service awaiting repairs.  

“I’m not clear if the principal in 2020 is similar one who is the principal now or if this neighborhood college supervisor is even nonetheless at Frick,” Littlejohn responded. “The neighborhood is also totally different, so we should always have adopted the follow famous within the BP [board policy] of instantly notifying as we are actually being questioned as to why we let college students proceed to make use of the items.”

On the college board assembly that night, the district had no solutions as to why there have been such lengthy delays in informing the neighborhood after district officers had the troubling information in hand. They promised an investigation.

That investigation was accomplished in spring 2025, Sasaki informed The Oaklandside, saying it revealed that whereas the district made steps towards bettering its lead testing, it didn’t develop a correct communications plan.

“There have been areas of communication, however they have been inconsistent and inefficient, thus creating confusion,” Sasaki stated.

This text was up to date on July 29 with extra remark from OUSD spokesperson John Sasaki.