Meridian Parents Upset Children Cleaning Cafeteria
November 16, 2005
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"Our kids are not there to clean up; they are there to learn," said Fileesha Chisolm, whose children, Nathan, Seth and Hannah, attend West Lauderdale. "My husband and I — as well as other parents — pay a lot of tax dollars that should be going to that school to pay the cafeteria workers to clean," she said. "It's not the students or the teachers' responsibility."
Principal Larry Vick said students volunteer to clean the cafeteria.
"This has been going on a long time; it's not anything new," he said. "Nobody's made to do it; in fact, the kids like doing it. They're just cleaning up their area. It's not taking away from their learning or their class time."
Lauderdale County School District Assistant Superintendent Ed Mosley said Chisolm and the parents are on the agenda for the school board meeting Thursday.
Gale McGuire, who has two children at West Lauderdale Elementary, said school officials had defended the cafeteria cleanup by saying it teaches children responsibility.
"Well, the only responsibility they have at school is to learn and to get their education, not to do a job that we as parents pay taxes for that school board to hire people to (do) in that cafeteria," McGuire said.
In October Chisolm said she sat with her son Seth, a fourth-grader, during lunch. As the class headed out to the courtyard to play after eating, she said, Seth was reminded it was his turn to clean up.
"I'm thinking, wiping the tables," Chisolm said. "But he and a little girl got the brooms and dust pans and they're sweeping."
And people wonder why we have problems these days. This woman doesn't want her children to have to clean up for themselves, instead she wants tax dollars to pay for it. And I can almost guarantee that this woman will vote against any school bond issue that ever comes up with the argument that school taxes are already too high.
posted by Brad at 3:07 PM
1 Comments:
Children should not have to clean up after other children at the cafeteria. This is child labor and since the children are not getting paid then, it is slavery. There are 4 staff members in the cafeteria at Oak Hill Elementary - one is the janitor. The janitor sits around and the other 3 hand out napkins and utensils when needed. Sometimes the staff will actually clean up messes, but they generally force the children to do it. The majority of children I spoke with do not like it. If fact, one school staff member tried to force my child and another to stay and clean up other messes that other children made instead of going back to class to learn with the other children. I put a stop to that. Children should clean up their own messes if they are capable of course, but again, should not be forced to clean up after others. Since when did child labor become legal? If a child wants to volunteer that is fine, otherwise forcing a child to do labor is illegal. For the small amount of time children are in school, they should spend it learning, not sweeping up messes. For those who are concerned about teaching responsibility, I can think of a million different ways that doesn't involve child labor.
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