A loos-lose situation
Check shows supplies lacking at 100 schools
BY JOE WILLIAMS, Daily News, November 10, 2004

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Melvyn Meer makes his point.

Surprise bathroom checks by the city found that 100 schools had inadequate supplies of toilet paper, paper towels or hand soap - just as outraged parents had charged, officials conceded yesterday.
The potty patrol inspected loos at 1,000 schools in mid-October after Mayor Bloomberg pooh-poohed a Daily News report that public school parents were being asked to cough up cash to stock the stalls.

Bloomberg had dismissed the parents' complaints as "a tempest in a toilet bowl."

But yesterday, Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm admitted to the City Council that some principals "request that the bathrooms not be stocked."

Their reason: Disruptive kids wad up the toilet paper and use it to clog the toilets.

Fedup parents and Council members insisted there has to be a better way to deal with the discipline problem.

"It's unacceptable that any school doesn't have an adequate supply," said Councilman Oliver Koppell (D-Riverdale).

The City Council released a detailed report quoting parents from all over the city who have been asked to buy bathroom supplies with their own money. And nine other parents testified about the shortages yesterday.

Delores Allen gave her testimony with a roll of toilet paper hanging around her neck - because she said her great-granddaughters are forced to wear toilet paper rolls when sent to unstocked bathrooms at Public School 184 in Brooklyn.

"I think this is the most dehumanizing thing for these children," said Valerie McIntyre, a retired teacher who helps out at PS 184.

Faced with the storm of criticism, educrats were defiant.

"I don't know how many languages I have to speak: The problem is not that the supplies aren't in schools," Grimm said.

Asked why so many parents made a stink about being asked to buy the bathroom supplies, Grimm said she could not comment because she had no idea. "No parent should have to provide this material," she said.

Records supplied by school officials showed that the amount of supplies ordered last year by custodians varied wildly. For example, schools in Manhattan District 2 spent $90,000 on toilet paper - or roughly $4 per student. By comparison, Brooklyn's District 16 spent $8,000 - or about $1 per student.

"Any parent can tell you they are being asked to provide these supplies," said Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz (D-Manhattan,) who said she has bought bathroom supplies for her own son's school on the upper East Side.

Moskowitz called on parents to demand more from the people who run the schools. "We have to stop tolerating a substandard system and make our voices heard," she said.

Melvyn Meer, Queens

His 5-year-old son attends PS 41, in Bayside.

Several weeks ago, he accompanied his son to the school bathroom and discovered that four stalls did not have toilet paper or even a dispenser. Another stall had a dispenser too high for his son to reach, he said.

Delores Allen, Brooklyn

Her two great-granddaughters attend PS 184, in Brownsville.

She testified at the City Council hearing yesterday with a roll of toilet paper around her neck because that's how children at that school must equip themselves to use the bathroom.

Jesse Alverio, Brooklyn

His 11-year-old attends MS 577, and his 9-year-old daughter attends PS 132, both in Williamsburg.

He said the schools asked parents to buy: paper towels, baby wipes, tissues and antibacterial soap.