Parents are dishing dirt about a Connecticut art teacher's quest for cleanliness: A public school teacher is forced on paid leave after requiring students to clean or bleach toilets for two years.
The Connecticut education system is making headlines after an art teacher reportedly forcing students to clean the toilet bowl of the portable classroom after use. While some parents are backing the idea that cleanliness is next to godliness, and the concept that cleaning up after yourself isn't such a bad thing, teacher Catherine Saur at the Kennelly School in Hartford, Connecticut, been placed on paid leave by the school district while it investigates.
Kennelly is a public school with pre-kindergarten through 8th grade students in attendance.
To the teacher's credit, cleaning supplies have been provided -- the school system hasn't been paying for those -- cleaning products were all supplied personally by the teacher. It's hard to say how in-depth the requirement has actually been: In a letter to parents, the school’s principal only admitted that Saur had been requiring her students to clean the toilet seat for two years.
The PTO president says there are four janitors on staff but admits that the school bathrooms are in "poor condition" -- and, simultaneously, a number of school parents are extremely supportive of the same bathroom cleaning requirement that has now forced the art teacher to paid leave.
Apparently the public Hartford school didn't know about the process -- and there's varying reports as to how the bathroom issue actually came to light. There's a claim that one student supposedly had an allergic reaction or had irritated hands from a bottle of "Fantastik" bathroom cleaner -- and that a parent then notified the public school. To that parent's credit, the kid's hands do look pretty torn up in the NBC video documentation ,from whatever reaction he may have had from the product. Perhaps the additional requirement should've been some latex gloves for the cleaning process -- apparently the art teacher didn't foresee potential for allergic reactions.
Another parent claims her 7-year-old daughter used the bathroom in her pants because she supposedly didn't want to clean the toilet -- a claim speaking volumes as to potential issues unrelated to school or toilet-cleaning.
According to NBC News, the teacher has also, allegedly, been forcing students who wash their hands to take paper towels and bleach along for the ride -- to clean the restroom toilet.
The method may have backfired: the 'clean-the-toilet when you wash' method may go down as the biggest dissuader yet in personal hygiene and hand-washing.
The teacher's now also being investigated by the Department of Children and Families. With physical education and art programs often the first to go at public schools, with recent budget cuts over the past several years, looks like there may be yet another art class in jeopardy.