This week we had an inspector come by from the safety branch of LAUSD. He had a grim face, a clipboard, and a scratchy pen he wielded with gusto and relish. He scuttled through classroom after classroom and uncovered MANY examples of clear and present DANGER!!!!
Most notably: couches. Yep. That’s right. Couches. Sofas. Cushy chairs. HAZARDS!!!
Many teachers bring couches from home and place them in the classroom library area so that kids will have a soft, inviting place to curl up and read (in the few seconds of the week where they’re allowed to have free reading time). I grant you that some of these couches, leftovers from college days or parents’ home downsizings, may be aesthetic hazards. I would not want to look at them as centerpieces in my living room. But aesthetics are never the issue in LAUSD.
Mr. Safety Inspector: This is UNACCEPTABLE!!!
Teachers: Um. Huh?
Mr. Safety Inspector: They’re flammable.
Teachers: They’re couches.
Mr. Safety Inspector: Here it is on Memo 48, Code 3242.9598b2a: Couches.
Teachers: ?
We have been cited for terrible safety violations. We are endangering our students! We have no consciences, clearly.
Quick. Someone call the LA Times. They’re probably dying to do an exposé. Can’t you just see the headline? 70% of Elementary Teachers Repeat Couch Offenders
Or actually, sadly, this is how it gets translated into the press: 70% of District Elementary Schools Found to Have Repeat Safety Violations
Couches.
Just like today’s LA Times piece on food:
Oh no, pushcart operators!
How many auditors? How many man-hours? How many administrators to compile the data and write the report? How many more auditors to make sure that school become ‘in compliance’? How many teacher-hours and custodial staff hours to create and document compliance?
How much money to train administrators? How many bureaucrat hours to create ‘adequate trainings’? How many principal hours to go to those trainings? How much money to rent hotel space to have these trainings?
We have moms who struggle financially and earn money by selling home-made tamales and breads outside the school. Is this so evil? Our PTA’s popcorn sales have also been banned as hazardous.
The articles continues with comments from school board member Marlene Canter’s nutrition coordinator (huh? our school’s cafeteria is being shut down and outsourced next year!) and several other bureaucrats about the need to create more memos, more handbooks, more trainings (more waste!). $$$$ in a district pleading poverty.
I absolutely agree that obesity and healthy food are priorities in this district. But is this the way to go about it? And is this good reporting? Where’s the real hazard?
on May 10th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Some things never change. 30 years ago, when I was a master teacher for lausd, I had a library area in my classroom with couch and pillows. I had the same experience. Children were supposed to remain in puritanical wooden hard backed chairs to read, library or no library. Because it was a “safety hazard” to have soft chairs or pillows. No mention of the damage to young growing backs.
Any wonder our students and our teachers view schools as only one step up from prisons?
on May 10th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Thanks for this GREAT blog!!!
We’re MAPPING grassroots Resistance to budget cuts at: http://cutshurtkids.org would you consider a short blogpost about the site?
In Unity!