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State may add soap, water to 3 R's (mandatory hand-washing)
Chicago Tribune ^ | February 15, 2007 | Tracy Dell'Angela

Posted on 02/15/2007 5:52:31 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

With all the crises that need to be addressed in Chicago's public schools, add this one to the list: germy little hands.

The Illinois House is expected to vote next week on a proposal that would require all Chicago schoolchildren to wash their hands "with antiseptic soap" before eating, and for the district to upgrade their hand-washing facilities to "nationally accepted standards."

Rep. Mary Flowers, a Chicago Democrat who first sponsored the bill in 2005 and brought it back this session, said she believes the law could save lives, or at least reduce absenteeism in city schools.

Flowers said she is limiting the proposal to apply only to Chicago schools as a starting point and is willing to expand it statewide.

Flowers said this health issue is an important priority for the legislature, which has yet to tackle the thorny issues of school-funding reform or high school dropouts.

"I've had to walk in some of these buildings and I've seen the bathrooms, and I tell you, I wouldn't want my children there," said Flowers, who said her first stab at this legislation died in committee, but it had no organized opposition. "I'm not trying to be a health fanatic. But if I couldn't wash my hands all day, I don't know what I would do. This is a medical crisis ... that needs to be addressed."

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: cleanliness; education; schools
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To: CholeraJoe

I think that teachers are reinforcing what parents have taught. Or that's what should be the case. Our children have been taught to wash after toileting. With my boys, I cannot guarantee that they follow the same practices at school.

When I was in school, I refused to use the restrooms until I was in high school. I remember first grade teachers teaching hygiene.


21 posted on 02/15/2007 7:03:21 AM PST by petitfour
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To: Tax-chick

""Her children" that she doesn't want using cheap soap in the school bathrooms are strictly hypothetical."

Not really, all of the children in her district are "her children." Parents are meaningless to the elites, the state is all powerful and assumes the rule of parenting.


22 posted on 02/15/2007 7:05:55 AM PST by CSM (We're not losing our country, some are just throwing it away. - Sherri-D)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
upgrade their hand-washing facilities to "nationally accepted standards."

At ballgames here in Cleveland they have "waterless" soap dispensers. You rub your hands together, and the soap evaporates. Couldn't one or two of these in the lunch line be sufficient?
23 posted on 02/15/2007 7:25:43 AM PST by mmichaels1970
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

When are the gubmint schools going to add the 3 R's to the brainwashing?


24 posted on 02/15/2007 7:49:22 AM PST by Albion Wilde (...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. -2 Cor 3:17)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I don't understand two things about this story. I'm not being sarcastic, I just don't get it. 1) When did schools become incapable of maintaining clean bathrooms? This wasn't a problem when I was in school. Kids were required to throw paper towels and such in the trash. Janitors went in several times a day and cleaned them. 2) When did parents quit teaching their children to wash their hands before they eat? I had been taught to do that before I ever started school. Do a majority of parents now neglect to teach their children to wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, and before they eat?


25 posted on 02/15/2007 7:50:57 AM PST by 3AngelaD (ic.)
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To: word_warrior_bob; theDentist; Andrew Byler
Who gets to be the "wiping" monitor inside the stall?

He needs the proper motivational resources:


26 posted on 02/15/2007 7:58:11 AM PST by Albion Wilde (...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. -2 Cor 3:17)
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To: theDentist

A friend and I were discussing this the other day about airport restrooms. What kind of mentality or disorder is it that makes people urinate all over a toilet seat and the floor and walls in a stall? You can't even put your items on the floor. What's so funny about not flushing and leaving used toilet paper everywhere?

Will it take bathroom security to check the stalls before and after people use them to hold them accountable? One of the great mysteries of "modern" society. How prevalent was this phenomenon in the 30's, 40's and 50's in America?


27 posted on 02/15/2007 8:05:05 AM PST by word_warrior_bob (You can now see my amazing doggie and new puppy on my homepage!! Come say hello to Jake & Sonny)
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To: Albion Wilde
When are the gubmint schools going to add the 3 R's to the brainwashing?

DING DING DING!!! We have a winner!

28 posted on 02/15/2007 8:10:43 AM PST by Tax-chick (Every "choice" has a direct object.)
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To: theDentist
I ran across a study very recently that showed that only 65% of people wash their hands before leaving the restroom; of those, only about half use soap and those that do use soap, only about half wash for the recommended time-- ~ 60-90 seconds.
29 posted on 02/15/2007 8:16:02 AM PST by Dysart
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To: Tatze
Yes, it makes sense to wash your hands before you eat. But since when is it the governments job to mandate it???

If you want to take advantage of government programs and facilities like public schools, you have to follow certain rules. Many of those mandate certain actions to increase safety or public health -- vaccinations in schools, seatbelts on public roads, etc. An increased emphasis on cleanliness -- and perhaps some hand sanitizer dispensers in the lunch lines -- might serve as an inexpensive prophylactic for all those school germs.

30 posted on 02/15/2007 8:17:23 AM PST by Caesar Soze
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To: Tax-chick

the grammar school my kids went to, hadn't been repaired or upgraded since the 40's. The boys bathrooms had no doors on the toilets

The little boy I watched after he got out of school and my son would come in and sit on the toilet for quite some time every day.

One of them got hemmoroids. I considered this a form of child abuse. I went to Social services to report it, and they scoffed at me saying the schools had no money to fix it.

If I had a bathroom at home in that condition, the same Social services would have no problem with removing my chidren from my home.


31 posted on 02/15/2007 8:20:52 AM PST by television is just wrong (Our sympathies are misguided with illegal aliens...)
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To: television is just wrong

I'll bet there were doors on the bathrooms the teachers used, thought.

I wouldn't use the bathroom in school all day because of the smoking and drug use. To this day, I drive my family crazy because I never want to stop when we're driving somewhere!


32 posted on 02/15/2007 8:30:40 AM PST by Tax-chick (Every "choice" has a direct object.)
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To: television is just wrong
Here's a recent story:

***....The new Gibbs cost $58-million, the most expensive school ever built in Pinellas County. It has everything. It has 2,300 students. Four in 10 are poor. Four in 10 won't graduate. An anonymous letter went to the superintendent on Dec. 15. The authors claimed to be "very disgusted teachers."

They wrote: "Here is a list of some of the outrageous things going on: Students defecating on the floors and in the sinks in the bathroom. Students having such terrible fights everywhere that their food was taken away. Students setting aerosol cans on fire. . . . Every other word is f---, s---."...*** http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/11/Floridian/Class_dismissed.shtml

33 posted on 02/15/2007 8:45:57 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Tatze
Yes, it makes sense to wash your hands before you eat. But since when is it the governments job to mandate it???

For the same reason that we mandate things like immunizations. People who don't wash their hands are carriers for diseases that can infect the rest of society.

34 posted on 02/15/2007 9:41:26 AM PST by Publius Valerius
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