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Is Toilet Cleaning Proper Punishment for Teen Students?
By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 14, 2010
Modified Jun 14, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 14, 2010
Modified Jun 14, 2010
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"It was gross. I did not want to do it," Randy Estevez, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at In-Tech Academy in the South Bronx, tells the Daily News. Estevez is referring to his detention punishment last fall, when he and another student were allegedly assigned janitorial duties on two days, with tasks including cleaning up feces. Now the Department of Education is investigating the school, but In-Tech's principal is all like whatever: "Someone's on a mission. This is so untrue," says Principal Rose Fairweather-Clunie.
Estevez claims he landed the toilet duty because his teacher said he "was behaving badly." And an unidentified source at the school says the administration had approved the corporal punishment "as being 'legal' because permission was supposedly granted by the parents." Estevez's mother tells the News, "I think it's okay. He learned his lesson. It's the only way he's going to learn. Now, next time he wants to misbehave, he'll think about the punishment and behave better."
But another mother whose son was forced to clean bathrooms says she never gave permission, and insists, "I don't agree with that punishment. It's degrading. It's not the right punishment for an educational institution. They need to find other forms of punishment." What do you think? Is toilet cleaning too harsh a punishment? Or should the detention program be expanded to create student work force chain gangs to help keep our city's streets and subways clean?
Tagged
custodian
detention
In-Tech Academy
janitor
South Bronx
Student
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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