Jackie Gingrich Cushman
Newt Gingrich’s justification for his proposition that unionized school janitors should be replaced by children is his contention that his daughter, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, spent a time as a part time janitor at the First Baptist Church in Carrollton, Georgia when she was 13.
I know a few things about janitorial work. My first job as an undercover investigator was as an industrial janitor in an injection molding factory in Banning, California in 1979. I was so adept at janitorial work that I earned raises while still on probation for the cover job (nobody at the plant knew I was undercover) for going above and beyond the call of duty and cleaning things that had never been cleaned before.
First of all, what caustic chemicals should children have access to and can they be trusted not to abuse them, use them in a dangerous manner, or harm themselves or others?
Should children be entrusted with electronic floor scrubbers or other janitorial equipment? Should children be expected to go up to the ceiling on a ladder to clean the central air/heating ducts? While doing so, what protective coverings and eye-wear should they use to keep from getting blinded (and potentially falling)?
The effects of Agent Orange
If a school has a problem with rodent or insect infestation will the student janitors be entrusted with or have access to pesticides and who will be responsible to insure that they use them responsibly? When I was in high school we distributed an edition of our underground newspaper, “Come Together,” featuring an article I co-authored on the use of carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic pesticides and herbicides that were being used in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Incidentally, the same chemicals being used at campuses around children had been banned by the military as defoliants in Vietnam (“Agent Orange”) because they were too dangerous to kill people with.
If a student school janitor causes a slip/fall at a campus, what will the effect on the school’s insurance premium be? If a school replaces adult janitors with child janitors, will the school’s workers compensation premiums rise with the added risk that entails?
Newt Gingrich’s smug arrogance about the way he promotes his simplistic ideas on how to instill work ethics in the children of the poor indicates to me that either he doesn’t have a clue about the skill levels required for what he views as trivial or menial. Janitorial work comes with great responsibility and should be entitled to respect. A janitor has lives in his/her hands just as do doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Their working conditions need to enjoy protection by their own unions and their work needs to be compensated as a valuable profession which society cannot live without.
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