Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 4, 1993 TAG: 9302040100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
TEACHERS' PETS' TASKS SHOULD BE CURBED, FEDS SAY
Brown-nosers, knocked through the years by everyone from jealous peers to class bullies, have more trouble coming.Now the government is down on teachers' pets.
Federal officials, reacting to complaints from at least one parent, have warned Virginia Beach schools that letting elementary-aged lunch monitors wipe down tables and sweep up trash in cafeterias violates child labor laws.
The warning calls into question all kinds of little tasks teachers routinely ask students to do, from cleaning out class pets' cages to running errands.
"I think this is a peculiar interpretation of these laws," said Anne Meek, the Virginia Beach superintendent's special assistant. `It's sort of off the wall.`
Children in many Virginia Beach elementary schools help clean their own class' mess after lunch, but never are asked to take care of other class' trash; big cleaning is reserved for the custodians, Meek said.
Such jobs are voluntary, used to help children learn responsibility and good citizenship, Meek said. Parents can opt not to have their children do the work, she added.
The tasks are not punishments, and children certainly are not used for cheap or free labor; most kids consider it a privilege, said G. Thomas Coggin, principal of Holland Elementary School.
Coggin's is one of three schools federal officials mentioned in their complaint.
"This is just a normal thing children are asked to do," he said. The tasks "teach them responsibility and manners and whatever. That's just what you're taught at home."
But the Labor Department isn't convinced. An official in the Wage and Hour Division, who spoke on the condition she wouldn't be identified, said because such cafeteria cleanups usually are done by paid custodians, the children could be considered to be doing employee-type work.
That's a no-no under federal law for anyone under age 14.
The department has ordered Virginia Beach to set up strict guidelines for what types of tasks children can do.
The city schools could be fined if they do not comply.
But Meek said she has not instructed principals to change their policies.
Meek said she took the warning seriously, and is drafting a letter of reply, but the feds are interpreting the law in a bizarre way.
`I've been in elementary education a long time, and [simple chores are] common practice," she said.