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Portland Public Schools spokeswoman Christine Miles told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Thursday that school employees "immediately" cut off access to water from drinking fountains and sinks at Rose City Park and Creston schools when water samples turned up unacceptably high levels of lead.

But Smith acknowledged Friday that workers did not turn off water from fixtures shown to be emitting lead or warn students, employees and visitors not to drink it. Instead, they took steps to repair and replace plumbing but allowed the tainted water to flow as usual in the meantime.

At Rose City Park, that meant students were free to drink lead-laced water for eight school days after district officials knew about the toxic results.