The times., 1897-03-24


Carhery public school, in northeast Wash
ington, has raised controversy between
herself and the parents of some of her
pupils by ordering the children TO clean
ink spots from the floor under their re-
spcetive desks.
The parents of the children are OF the
the jantor OF the building, and under no
circumstances should the pupils OF the
school be called uponto doit. Furthermore.
IL is claimed To be in direct violation of
the rules governing conduct OF the public
schools of the District.
Mr.. and Mrs. Joseph NJ Mccoy are the
parents of one Of The children who were
compelled on Monday, after school hours,
to do the Objectionable work.
Mr.. Mccoy is a clerk in the Pension
Bureau, and resides at No. 32S E street
northeast. On Monday morning his little
daughter josephine, eight years of age,
told her mother that Miss Gardner, her
teacher, had told her TO carry small
piece OF glass and some sandstone to
school with which to clean her desk and
sCrape the inkspots from the floor. At the
same time she told her mother that the
other children in her row had been
given the same order.
Josephine, a pretty, bright-eyed little
child, became indignant and claimed that
IT, was unfair that she should be com
PEELED TO clean up ink which had been
spilled by some other child. Around her
desk there were inkspots, but these were
no. IN Sat at hp no
fore she was assigned to it.
Mrs Mccoy saw Che justice Of her child's
protest and refused to give her the pieces
of glass and soapstone ordered by her
teacher Little Josephine was sent back
to school in the Afternoon. but did not re-
turn at O'Clock, the usual hour. When
she did come, at nearly O'Clock, she told
her motherthatshe whit lie other children
in her. .Lrow,'' were kept in and made to
clean the desks and also the ink spots from
the floor under and around the desks
Mrs Mccoy, when seen by reporter for
The Times, yesterday afternoon, was very
decided in heropinion about such treatment
of her child That Miss Gardner exceeded
her authority in compelling the children to
scrub up the ink from the floor, she has no
Doubt.
The idea she said. ''of a teacher com
pelling little children to bring glass to
school to scrub the floor with. II seemed
to me to be one of the greatest tmpositions
l ever heard OF and,-of Course, i refused
to allow Josephine to take any glass tr
soapstone to school,
Miss 1inrlner. the teacher, when seen,
denied having ordered the children to use
glass and also denied having told the
children to scrub the floor. Il asked
the children TO clean off the tops of their
desks and said that if they wanted TO
they could clean the floor. ! have no
statement to make" she added. Il do
not see why, if any one has any complaint
To make, she cannot come To me. should
like to know who the one is who makes
the complaint, as | should not hesitate
To dismiss the child from my school
Mrs Doonan, who resides at No 323 F
street northeast, differs from the state
ment made by Miss Gardner, and corrobo-
rates the version of the order as given by
Mrs Mccoy. Mrs Doonan has two chill
dren. Katherine and Gerard, who attend
Carberv School The little girl, katherine,
sitsinthe same row with josephine Mccoy.
and witt: her on Monday afternoon was
kept in after school hours to clean her
desk aud the ink spots from the floor
under her desk.
Mrs Dounan said that when her child
returned in the evening the nice white
apron which she wore in the morning, was
terribly soiled by Katherine s having to
clean the ink spots from the floor.
1t was also learned that another row"
has been ordered TO do the cleaning act
today Whether the children will obey
the order is, OF course, not known. IU
is known, however, that one of them viii
not, for her parents said yesterday after
noon, in talking of the matter, no matter
what others did, their little girl should
not scrub the public school floors to please
anyone.
In case there is a further effort to
enforce similar orders, it is very probable
that there will be some interesting de-
velopments.