Dr. Tom Keating has been involved in education for more than for 34 years, serving as a school board member, college instructor, teacher and school district lobbyist. Now, as a published author and the founder of Project-CLEAN, he is trying to get school districts to understand the importance of keeping school restrooms safe, clean and hygienic. Dr. Keating says he has attempted to improve the conditions of restrooms in more than 100 schools in 18 states since beginning Project-CLEAN in 1996. SP&M talked to Dr. Keating while he was promoting his ideas to several school districts in Texas.
SP&M: What caused you to become concerned about public school restrooms?
Dr. Keating: Three students — our son Jeffrey, our daughter Stephanie and the next-door neighbor’s son, Ty. My son Jeffrey told me about not using the Decatur City High School restrooms while he was there. Our daughter Stephanie was in middle school in the same community and she had requested sanitary product dispensers and receptacles, and they were not available in the middle school. Ty would race straight to the bathroom when he came home from school because he had held it in all day.
So, from my experiences with those three students in the late ‘80s, I began to interview students and adults about this subject everywhere we went and found that every student and adult that I talked to had a horror story. I then did what every Ph.D. does — a literature search — and found that there was very little published in 1994 about these facilities. So I studied what I could, reflected on interviews .I had conducted and decided that I better see first hand. I went to a high school and got them to agree to allow me to clean bathrooms for six hours with the custodian. I went back the next morning and found that things were just as bad as before we had cleaned them.
In 1996, I began Project-CLEAN (Citizens Learners and Educators Against Neglect). The purpose is to improve the safety, cleanliness and hygiene of public school restrooms.
SP&M: You developed a method for assessing school restrooms and resolving these issues?
Dr. Keating: Yes, but first, I want to make it plain that I am not about the problems of public school restrooms, nor am I about exposing the issues — the issues are known by everyone. What I am about is hearing suggestions and finding solutions to the issues, initiated by the people who are the users and abusers of these facilities.
What I learned, after visiting more than 100 schools in 18 states, is that it boils down to simply this: Students must have respect for themselves, others and their high schools, and the adults have to care about the safety, cleanliness and hygiene in the restrooms.
I have designed a five-step process that, if implemented, should change the attitudes and behavior of students and ensure the concern and involvement of the adults.
Step One is to gain the trust of the principal. You can’t do anything to improve public education without the trust of the principal.
Step Two is to do an unchaperoned inventory of a sampling or all of the restrooms in a school. I use a checklist that assesses whether or not something is there, and I also rate those items that do exist according to their condition — good, fair or poor.
Step Three is to request that the principal assemble a group of students and selected adults to form a committee. The committee isn’t asked to discuss the problems in the bathrooms — we all know about the graffiti, the vandalism or the disgusting habits of urinating on the floor, or worse — we want them to discuss suggestions or solutions about how to handle those issues.
Step Four in the process is to write up a restroom improvement plan for that school that is no more than two pages long — these people are too busy to read the two-in. notebooks that they get when they go to all the seminars and meetings. They are more likely to read this two-page report, especially if you add a little bit of emphasis from a superintendent, board member or parent.
Step Five is to offer to act as a resource if the principal has new questions.
SP&M: Do you receive many requests for that service?
Dr. Keating: Some principals will call with questions, but others have bigger issues to deal with, like a gun in school, etc. If I don’t hear from them after a period of time, I call back. At times, I have set up projects that are designed to last for extended periods of time. Decatur High School, in Georgia, sent out a survey in February to the entire student body and faculty on the condition of their restrooms.
Another questionnaire has been sent to a select group of elementary, middle and high school principals in Georgia to finds out if they favor creating standards for public school restrooms. So, yes there is follow-up work that can be done, and some principals have asked for that help.
SP&M: So this is a full-time occupation?
Dr. Keating: Yes, I am currently under contract with several cities and school districts. I am the advisor to all of the schools of DeKalb County (Ga.), where we are trying to improve the restrooms beyond the five steps and apply that to all 140 school facilities. I am also working with the school facility task force in Taos, N.M., concerning all of their elementary, middle and high schools. Last year I was able to help the school district in Omaha, Neb., with problems at a middle and a high school; an elementary school in Huntsville, Ala.; two middle schools in Pittsburgh; and a high school in Philadelphia. Those four cities were aided by a business-in-education partner that helped with the expenses.
I have a business-in-education partner, PDK, (Phi Delta Kappa) an education professional organization that has been around since 1909, that helped me publish a 35-page booklet that they distribute. Another business-in-education partner, Bobrick Washrooms Equipment, Inc., a restroom door and partition company, has made it possible for me to reprint that booklet and make it available from my own Website for the cost of postage.
SP&M: Aren’t there some form of codes or rules concerning these facilities?
Dr. Keating: About four states have some form of standards for their public school restrooms. That seems amazing considering that if you would go into a nice restaurant anywhere in the country, there are standards that apply to their restrooms that are enforced by the community health department and state law. Now, if you go into a school in that same community, it’s a different story.
There are standards for the restroom facilities that are used by those who work in the kitchen — the food service people — it is inspected at least once a year. Except for four states, when you go into the average high school, there are no standards for the restrooms being used by the students. I believe there needs to be nationwide standards for public school restrooms.
Two state representatives in Georgia, Rep. Ashe and Rep. Benfield, introduced House Bill 336, which would establish a host of standards for school restrooms that the governor’s office called“a no-brainer.” It says these restrooms should be clean; that they should have warm water; and that they should provide soap, towels and tissues. They should be checked, and when graffiti is found, it should eliminated.
Well, that bill is being fought by educators because they say they have no time for this issue about bathrooms. They say we are overly testing people. They say they have no money, although there are supplements for a variety of personnel, and they say it is not a high enough priority, even though for the students, after breathing and eating, comes eliminating.
There are three states — Florida, Pennsylvania and Kentucky — that have actual state legislation dealing with public school restrooms. But, they come out of standards that were written with the food service industry in mind.
California is the exception to the rule. They have two state laws, SB 892 and Assembly Bill 1124 that address public school restrooms, per se. As far as I can tell, it is the first state to do this. The state actually says that these facilities are important. One of the bills is a list of standards and the other says that you can take money from a special maintenance account and use it to reach those standards. And, it goes on to say that if there is a complaint that is not responded to, the school can lose some of that maintenance money. They even created a complaint form and made it available online.
SP&M: So this is not an isolated or regional problem?
Dr. Keating: Far from it. The issue of public school restrooms is a national disgrace, that needs to be eliminated building by building. This is a huge health, cleanliness, safety and social issue. According to the only study I am aware of that has addressed this issue, more than four out of 10, actually 42 percent, of students in U.S. middle and high schools avoid using school restrooms. If you consider that seven percent of the total population suffers from paruresis — the inability, either by physical constraints or fear, to eliminate in public places — this is a bigger issue than anyone has realized. By the way, in addition to the sanitary conditions of the restrooms, surveys have shown that the other significant issue here is a lack of privacy. Often, there are no doors on the bathroom stalls or there are no partitions between the urinals.
SP&M: This doesn’t seem like it is a new issue, why hasn’t it been addressed before?
Dr. Keating: We all know that we don’t want to talk about poop, and that really isn’t the issue. I’m talking about changing attitudes so that kids respect the space and adults care about the issue. Our three functional needs are to breathe, eat and sleep, but the fourth most important need is to eliminate. There is no reason to continue our Puritanical aversion to talking about the“smallest room.” Everyone has to put something into this. We can’t continue the historic blame game — that’s what Project-CLEAN is about.
For more information about Project-CLEAN or to get information about Dr. Tom Keating’s book, Project-CLEAN: Safe, Sanitary School Restrooms, call 404/373-4973 or visit the Project-CLEAN Website at www.project-clean.com.
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