The crisis appears over at Summit Township Elementary School, where lead and other contaminants in the water forced a shutdown of the school 11 months ago and the relocation of its pupils and faculty to Butler’s Broad Street Elementary school building seven miles away.

Summit’s water well is officially retired. A public water line was installed in August to take its place. Plumbing fixtures that leached lead and copper were replaced in October, and the pipes have been thoroughly flushed since then.

Thorough testing confirms that the water is safe again for drinking, washing and cooking. Barring any unforeseen circumstance, children will return to Summit after the Christmas break.

This news should bring joy and relief to everyone. But as Summit Elementary settles into its routines and gets back to the business of education, let’s remind ourselves about the true nature of the Summit crisis, and what precipitated it.

Summit’s crisis was not about lead in the water — everyone must deal with impurities in their water. It would have been a very different story if administrators had come forward at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year and reported its test results, that would have been alarming news, but not condemning news. It still would have been a big problem, but all it needed then was leadership.

But that is not what happened. What happened was a cover-up. A note went home with pupils vaguely citing a problem with the water but not specifying what the problem was and assuring parents that the problem had been solved — when in fact it had not been solved, nor had it even been reported to the proper state authorities.

Lacking proper notification, the faculty and pupils continued being exposed to potentially harmful water for several months — drinking it, washing their hands and dishes in it, making Kool-Aid and coffee with it. Medical experts tell us that repeated exposure to even tiny amounts of lead can damage almost every organ. In children, too much lead in the body can cause lasting problems with growth and development.

Summit’s crisis was this: an administration that knew the danger of exposure to lead, that did nothing to mitigate a potential exposure problem, and in fact tried to conceal from the public that an exposure problem even existed.

Summit’s crisis was not lead in the water; rather, it was a betrayal of the public trust. It was the neglect of our most precious resource, our children — a resource with which they were highly trained, highly certified and highly paid to care and nurture.

By never forgetting the true nature of the Summit Elementary crisis, we’ll better appreciate the price we’ve all had to pay to restore order and trust in our school district and its leaders. Let’s work hard and remain vigilant not to lose that ever again.