Don’t Let Schools Go Down the...

Maybe my kids were precocious. My daughter was toilet trained at 21 months, my son at 2 years. Both had the whole thing mastered by the time they started school. Like most children so taught, they prefer facilities that are clean and properly supplied.

Unfortunately, when my son, now almost 12, entered Millikan Middle School in September, I discovered that maintaining an acceptable standard of cleanliness in restrooms apparently is beyond the ability of the giant Los Angeles Unified School District.

Paper is scarce. The boys’ stalls don’t have doors since they were ripped off the hinges by student vandals. The modest-sized bathroom scribbles of my youth have given way to gang monikers big enough to require regular repainting and patching, if anyone can get the district to pay for it and a maintenance person to do it. It gets worse, but you get the idea. Oh yes: Restrooms are also the site of harassment of younger students by older ones.

I have been down to these mean johns. Prompted by children coming home with tummy aches from holding it, a committee of Millikan parents formed itself into a four-person potty patrol with the administration’s approval. One of our goals was to make the restrooms decent. Another was to lobby for more working restrooms--there is now one each for girls and boys, and the school has 1,400 students.

Parents made progress toward Goal 1 when they inventoried toilet paper, towel and soap dispensers; unplugged sinks, which were invariably stuffed with paper; checked out the status of the walls, floors and sinks, then called the janitors when it was time to get their mops. The one steadfast mom still patrolling bugged the administration so much that it ordered the janitors to clean the bathrooms every hour. The theory is similar to the one about broken windows: If one gets broken, repair it immediately or pretty soon they all will be broken.

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Progress does not imply complete correction of the problem. The patrol is down to one mother (burnout is a problem). Kids tell me fatalism is mainly responsible for a drop-off in complaints. But things are better. Districtwide, a buddy system is being instituted for restroom visits because of an assault on a little girl outside the Valley, which might reduce harassment.

Goal 2--more restrooms--has been more elusive. Of course, state standards ensure that ample restrooms are built in every school, but, it was explained to me, they are then closed because they cannot be supervised adequately. The result at Millikan is a restroom-to-pupil ratio of 1-to-700, which is ridiculous.

Curious to discover whether our situation was unique, I called around and discovered that it is not.

“When I came here three years ago the bathrooms were awful,” said Principal Alfredo Tarin of Mulholland Middle School. He enlisted staff (teachers, administrators, custodians), parents and, most important, students to resolve the situation.

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At Portola, Principal Richard Cord makes a point of painting out graffiti posthaste, and the culprit, if caught, must do the painting. The facilities are scrubbed nightly.

My brief Valley survey revealed that eternal vigilance is the price of cleanliness. In my opinion, it’s worth it.

Parents should be responsible for their children, and they should be involved in their child’s school. It is not simple, since most parents work and society does not yet deem it important enough for a parent to take off time to help out at school. Moreover, getting involved carries the risk of parents becoming frustrated and angry at the school system.

You find frustration at the system in the system. And it’s no wonder. I have witnessed the school system unable to fill a request for a cord for a computer from a Downtown supply office in less than three months or provide a toilet seat from maintenance.

But I think responsibility should not fall on just the school people. Parents need to get involved, even though it’s hard work. Of course, kids shouldn’t mess up the restrooms, but it’s up to the grown-ups to enforce the rules and set standards.

If I were a kid among the majority who don’t vandalize the facilities, I might wonder how adults who can’t maintain restrooms could possibly have anything to teach me about life.

Government-mandated education should take place in a clean, safe environment. If we can’t keep public education up to that level, perhaps we ought to flush it down the toilet--if we can find a functional one.