Students at Bonham elementary school in Abilene, Texas, faced a serious
problem last week when the school's toilets stopped working. Principal
Diane Rose acted quickly and smartly. Instead of preparing mops and
buckets, she called in the buses. Throughout the day, while the Abilene
utilities crew repaired a water main, Bonham's 600 squirming students
rode buses to "nearby schools that offered the use of their restrooms."
After all was said and done, Rose seemed to count the day a success, and
she told reporters, "It was just like a little field trip." But should
principals in schools without proper plumbing-where students can't learn
arithmetic because they're too worried about overflowing toilets and
contaminated drinking fountains-be so nonchalant? Gadfly left several
messages on Jonathan Kozol's machine; he hasn't returned our calls. But
we already picture his next book: Injustice Overflows Like an Abilene Toilet.
"School improvises when toilets go out," Associated Press, April 10, 2006
