Melanie “mellowknees” Fletcher says:
Here is an interesting article about a student at the Oregon Coast Technology School at North Bend Middle School in Oregon. The school placed a ban on students brining bottled water to class (because some students were using it to smuggle alcohol). Student Kyleray Katherman conducted a series of tests to prove that the drinking fountains in the school were not sanitary, and found that, in fact, the water from the school’s toilets contained considerably less bacteria than the water coming from the drinking fountains.
Administrators quickly replaced the spigots and casing at three of the water fountains and custodians gave them all a thorough cleaning.
More teachers are providing water in classrooms now, but the ban on water bottles remains.
“It was a great lesson. We don’t always see things in and about the school that are in need of repair,” said Scott Edmondson, the school’s principal, adding, “You’d be surprised how clean the water is in a toilet.”
Reader comment:
Nick says:
My middle school had dirty water fountains — they went over the legal limit for e.coli in the water several times without shutting down the water. We were also forbidden to have waterbottles for the same reason.