About 2 weks ago DD1 4.6 y came home from school with a short length of what looked like some kind of chain. I didn't look at it properly till bedtime and then when I picked it up I immediately saw it was made of lead.
It was made of a sort of string with small lead beads pressed onto it, which came off easily when I slid them along the string. She had been playing with it all day at nursery and sucking it. She said one of the teachers had given it to her and some of her friends had bits too and hd also had them in their mouths.
Next morning I called the school first thing and DD1s teacher called me back a couple of minutes later and said a support teacher had been cutting up some old curtains for an activity and the strings of lead were in the hems. The children had seen the strings and picked them up to play at making bracelets with them. She said that the support teacher was very sorry, she had meant to take the strings back off the children but had forgotton.
I didn't take it any further (and the Easter holidays started the next day)but am amazed that a teacher could be so stupid as to let children play with lead, which is a highly toxic heavy metal. I am angry that she let them have the pieces in the first place never mind forgot to take them off them later.
I am still in two minds whether to speak to the director of the school about it and whether to tell the parents of the other chidren what happened.
Am I over or under reacting?
By the way this happened in Spain where we don't have the same rigor where Health and Safety is concerned as in the UK.