A protest on June 18 in Chicago asked community members to donate rolls of toilet paper to local schools whose 2013-2014 budgets had been stripped bare of janitorial supplies, the Network For Public Education reports.
Although the official budget proposals from the Chicago Public Schools won’t be approved until at least August, the district has shared the budgets with principals and Local School Councils. Some schools are facing more than $1 million in cuts.
Using the Twitter hashtag #CPSWipes, protesters insisted the cuts will force schools to choose between teachers and toilet paper, the Huffington Post reported, citing a report on Fox 32.
“In many schools, including mine, there are no funds left for janitorial supplies—and this includes toilet paper,” Chicago teacher Michelle Gunderson told the Daily Kos before the toilet paper drive. “What might seem juvenile to some is in fact a perfect metaphor for the disregard of human dignity—the Chicago Public Schools care so little about children that their basic needs are being neglected.”
Chicago has always been known for great drama, but providing no janitorial supplies for schools will affect the health and well-being of children in those schools. As with the closure of 49 neighborhood schools, the cuts blow my mind. Not much I can say about things when Mayor Rahm Emanuel would actually propose going without janitorial supplies in the schools.