I picked up my child from elementary school today. (S)he wanted to go to the bathroom before coming home and I went along. The floors had urine on them, the toilets had feces in them and bathroom smelled awful. My child told me the bathrooms are always like that because there are too many children in the school.
Do we really not have enough funds to keep the bathrooms clean? If I see conditions like that again I will call the health department.
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“Consider the reasons which make us certain that we are right… but not the fact that we are certain. If you are not convinced, ignore our certainty. Don’t be tempted to substitute our judgment for your own.” – Hugh Akston
Are Our Schools Filthy and Unfit for Children?
You haven’t seen a thing until you see the cockroaches at these elementary schools.
Filthy Schools and Filthy Students
These issues need to be corrected. I don’t totally disagree with what is said. However, have you seen the restrooms in some office buildings both private and public? We need to look at this from both sides. Over the years I have seen so much good by some of our school staff in handling the student population. It is not fair to just blame the problem on over population of our schools. Yes we try to put to many students in some out dated buildings. The students and parents take on a responsibility for what has happened and will happen. Those bathrooms got that way somehow. Not just from over use. All too often I have seen students and even parents who just have no respect for what is offered to them. It is an attitude that starts at home and should not be tolerated in our schools by staff, students and parents. The looks and even verbal abuse I have gotten when asking someone to pick up garbage they just threw on the ground is frightening. I get to appoint that I almost don’t say anything at all. It’s time everyone is held accountable for all of the problems with, population, staffing, parents and students. But don’t punish the good with the bad.
The filthy schools, parks, and venues of New Rochelle.
Call the health department 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, and all year through ! Then, clock how long it takes to see ANYTHING done. I guarantee your efforts will be in vain. I know this for a fact because I attempted many times to bring ‘public health violations’ to their attention and nothing ever came out of it. In addition to the school bathrooms being a bloody mess, the parks and other public venues in New Rochelle are also a mess. The ” newly arrived” or ” new arrivals” as the mayor ( yes, I used lower case) calls them tend to toss all used pampers, tampons and toilet paper on the floors. I asked a mexican friend of mine why this was? He told me that the plumbing systems in mexico are so easily backed up that it is common place for most mexicans to simply drop their used items on to the floor. They may all be in a new country, but, clearly, they have no concept of this and no desire to respect any laws or rules period, and certainly not laws of hygiene. As I wrote a few months ago, I saw an entire family of ‘recent arrivals’ using the SOLE water fountain at the library green to wash their children’s backsides after changing their diapers? The very water fountain that many children and adults of New Rochelle use while passing through the library green ! This woman and her many friends then began tossing the used diapers into the bushes and all around that corner of the library green. I am multilingual and I immediately went up to the lady and explained how that water fountain was not meant to be used as a child bath and how she should not be littering the park with used toilet paper, baby wipes, and diapers and she just laughed in my face. Knowing this, does it surprise you that you find the schools, parks, and other venues littered and unfit? When lysteria, e coli, and dysentery begin the breakout around town, maybe, maybe the Health department and the city might do something about it, just think about the bad press. However, in the meantime, do not hold your breath.
There are no excuses, but what can we do?
Certainly the attitudes of people who don’t care about others are distressful. So what can we do?
Talking to the person littering is laudable even if it gets no results. In the schools we must ask all our teachers to impart in their students the need to care about others and to not litter. This would go a long way even if the school is crowded. The Christopher motto is “it is better to light one little candles than to stumble in the dark,” and this is a good example of a situation where if everyone cooperated there would be an improvment.