USA School Toilet Campaign
Project CLEAN Support Page

Did architects, builders, or school district owners evaluate the design of these Pittsburgh middle school restrooms?
In 2003, any person standing in the hall could see boys' urinals and girls' mirrors.

Tom Keating and Project CLEAN can help students, parents, custodians and administrators stop restroom neglect with these five steps to bathroom respect

  1. A Project CLEAN team leader will visit your school; and,
  2. Take an inventory of restroom conditions.
  3. The team leader will facilitate student and adult discussions in order to identify solutions to restroom problems.
  4. Project CLEAN staff will develop an individualized written restroom improvement plan for your school; and,
  5. Students, educators, parents and custodians will implement, maintain and ensure ongoing improvements with possible Project CLEAN support.

 

Steps you can take on your own:
Students, do you need soap?
  1. Get to know your custodian's full name. Write it down.
  2. Ask him or her to restock the soap as needed.
Tell other students not to mess with the soap.
  1. Hold a poster contest about nice restrooms.
  2. If needed, bring your own hand sanitizer.

 
Parents, does your child hold it in all day?
  1. Write the name of your school's restroom improvement leader.
  2. Work with that person to start a restroom sub-committee of the Safe School Committee.
  3. Have PTAs and booster clubs visit bathrooms.
  4. Clean, paint, and decorate restrooms; then set up effective monitors to keep them safe.
Custodians, is graffiti or scratchiti a problem?
  1. Write the name of one attention-seeking student.
  2. Find and use an effective anti-graffiti product.
  3. Remove words and pictures daily.
  4. Restock and monitor restrooms more often.
  5. Ask the school newspaper to run a photo-article.
If a school can't do a simple thing like keep soap in a dispenser, he says, how can it hope to teach students self-respect or inspire them to greater academic achievement? "This is a national disaster and I think we ought to do something about it. "
Wall Street Journal June 2002

 

"PTAs with Building and Ground committees could have a subcommittee on 'Restrooms.' School councils could add school restrooms to their agenda. Health and PE teachers could have regular units on a whole host of health, attendance and achievement issues." 
The School News, Wisconsin Education Connection May 2003

 

"Board members must realize that too many restrooms are filthy, vandalized, and lacking such basic necessities as soap and toilet paper. Many administrators agree the restroom is a major battlefield in their fight to maintain order."  
School Board News, National School BoardsAssociation Dec. 1996

 

"This is about cleanliness, safety, and hygiene. But it is also about schools respecting students and students respecting themselves. It's about learning to be a self-initiating, self-governing citizen. This is my way of building democracy."
Education Week February 2003,

 

"At first glance, the relationship between restrooms filled with smoke, graffiti, and foul orders, and a general 'grunginess' may not seem related to standards and achievement, but they do represent the overall attitude, the personality of the school." 
Updating School Board Policies, National School Boards Association June-July 1998

 

"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."
School Planning and Management,  March 2004

 

Project CLEAN offers constructive, tried and true solutions and strategies for restroom management and supervision. 
The Student Relations Review, DeKalb County School System Spring 2000

 

Media Coverage of Project CLEAN

 

For 'Bathroom Man' Place Where Students Go Really Lacks Class  Wall Street Journal Page A14 6/27/02 Bathroom Man is a Super Hero at Some Schools  Failure Magazine 11/02
Restroom Activism gets results  Atlanta Journal-Constitution  2/11/03 
Hidden Camera Investigation Finds Deplorable Conditions  Inside Edition 2/22/05
Improving School Restroom Facilities   School Planning & Management  3/04  
A National Disgrace  School Planning & Management  December 2005 Pages 26-29
School district hopes to flush bad restrooms Philadelphia Inquirer 6/11/05 

 

Project CLEAN Publications

 

Project CLEAN : Safe, Sanitary School Restrooms
by Tom Keating       Phi Delta Kappa. Educational Foundation. 

Publisher: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation (2002) 
Published: Bloomington, Ind.
ISBN: 0873676955 
Series: Fastback ; 495 
Material: 35 p. : port. ; 18 cm. 
Note: Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-33). 

Summary:  Insight into the the less discussed problems of  school building toilet facilities and school hygiene in the United States 

 

Brochures [ Each iImage is of 2 hand-outs]

 

 

Click each image for  expanded view

Project CLEAN based guidelines

GEORGIA SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS' RESTROOM CHECKLIST