From: elg@elgamy.sccsi.com (Eric Lee Green)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: Kindergarten Blues
Date: 12 Aug 92 16:47:38 GMT
Organization: Eric's Amiga 2000 @ Home

From article <1683F118D9.CREECH@LSTC2VM.stortek.com>, by CREECH@LSTC2VM.stortek.com (Teresa Creech):
>>"Going to the Bathroom: ...If you haven't visited an elementary school
>>bathroom for a while, believe all your child's complaints.  They do stink
>>and the kids do on occasion use the floors, sinks, etc.  There is very
>>little, if any, privacy....This is one of those "what choice do you
>>have?" situations in life...it's the public latrines or not at all.
>>..if the bathrooms are truly gross, point this out to the principal
>>who probably hasn't been foolish enough to step inside one for years."
>
> Expert: That isn't true.  Anytime the bathroom stinks is when it's almost
>         time to go home.  Usually they smell like flowers.  The doors on
>         the bathroom don't lock for 3rd and 4th graders, but the 5th
>         graders do have locks.  If you want privacy you can hold the door
>         shut.  The school bathrooms smell better than the daycare bathrooms.
>
> Mommy:  I have used the students restrooms.  They don't stink.  They are in
>         many ways a lot cleaner than many public restrooms.  Sometimes the
>         kids don't flush, but adults don't always either :-)
>         There are doors on the stalls and the entrance has a door which is
>         normally shut.  Until last week, the restroom where I work didn't
>         have an exterior door!!!
>>Actually, most of this is not surprising--except the word on bathrooms.
>>I was appalled by this description of bathroom conditions--are they
>>really that bad?  I suppose a lot of this varies from region to region.

Bathroom reports (Houston):

Pershing Middle School: Boy's toilets rarely had bathroom tissue. The
urinal was a large open vat with little dribblets of water tinkling down
one side. There were no doors on the stalls. A distinct odor of cigarette
smoke hung around the restroom, even though this was several hours after
the end of school. The floors were sticky even though they had been
"freshly mopped" -- apparently the mop water is not changed often enough.
There was a slight smell of urine, but not much.

Mark Twain Elementary: Stalls had doors, but a distinct odor of ammonia and
urine hung about the place. Bathroom was very dark -- the lights weren't
working. Note, however, that this was between sessions, so most likely they
would be fixed prior to the start of the school year.

Dodson Elementary: Mr. Curtiss wouldn't tolerate smelly bathrooms. Unlike
in New York City and other such heavily unionized locations, principals
here have some control over the custodial staff. I can't comment upon
whether there was toilet paper or not. All I'll say is that paper products
are generally in short supply in inner-city schools, since school districts
tend to funnel the money to their "upper-class" schools despite federal and
state laws that say that such a practice is illegal.

--
 Eric Lee Green  elg@elgamy.sccsi.com         Dodson Elementary
 (713) 437-6908  uunet!nuchat!elgamy!elg      Houston, TX
                "Kids are kids, no matter what"
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