Anybody else concerned about the perpetual deep cleaning of schools upon returning?

[Anonymous]

Bleach fumes destroy your lungs but they do dissipate. I am with you op about other chemicals. Our school has been getting sprayed with some other chemicals that I'm sure will dry and end up inhaled and affecting the sensitive kids with asthma or allergies. I hate it, if nobody is there why spray? And they did it days after closure, why do it right before opening (their plan to appease concerns). I think I will complain so they think about it. If people don't speak out you end up like that environmental disaster in Spain where they sprayed weeks empty beaches with bleach during nesting season when the beach already disinfects itself. There was no covid in that sand and the fall out has been harsh but stupidity is always behind over zealous chemical spraying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, because our schools will never get the hang of actually deep cleaning. Little danger there.

This. Have you ever worked on a janitorial crew?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went back to school after the supposed deep clean and it was just as gross as ever. No evidence anyone had cleaned anything.


-a teacher

They are not moving things around or cleaning really. A company is hired to go in with misters and coating everything in a layer of disinfectants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went back to school after the supposed deep clean and it was just as gross as ever. No evidence anyone had cleaned anything.


-a teacher

Same. Unless maybe they cleaned around the mouse droppings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went back to school after the supposed deep clean and it was just as gross as ever. No evidence anyone had cleaned anything.


-a teacher

Same. Unless maybe they cleaned around the mouse droppings?

I’m dreading going back and having to clean up all the mouse droppings and dead bugs that have been collecting on surfaces. Just so people have an understanding of what kind of cleaning really goes on—if I want my trash can liner to be changed at all during an entire school year I have to bring my own and do it myself. The floor of my room past the 2 feet inside the doorway never gets vacuumed either—if I want that done I have to bring in some kind of vacuum and do it myself. Same with any kind of dusting or wiping down of surfaces. The “cleaning” of rooms is cursory at best. Hopefully that will change.

[Anonymous]

No place in the history of schools or stores have ever had a ‘deep cleaning’.

- works in clean room

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went back to school after the supposed deep clean and it was just as gross as ever. No evidence anyone had cleaned anything.


-a teacher

Same. Unless maybe they cleaned around the mouse droppings?

I’m dreading going back and having to clean up all the mouse droppings and dead bugs that have been collecting on surfaces. Just so people have an understanding of what kind of cleaning really goes on—if I want my trash can liner to be changed at all during an entire school year I have to bring my own and do it myself. The floor of my room past the 2 feet inside the doorway never gets vacuumed either—if I want that done I have to bring in some kind of vacuum and do it myself. Same with any kind of dusting or wiping down of surfaces. The “cleaning” of rooms is cursory at best. Hopefully that will change.

School staffer here. I buy my own hospital quality wipes and wipe down my phone, desk, light switch, chairs, the works - before and after school. Done this for years. Policy is that only janitors may clean up spilled bodily fluids like blood or vomit. Sometimes there’s a lengthy delay.

In general, students don’t know proper hand washing.

[Anonymous]

If schools do not quadruple their custodial staff, you can be assured that there is little extra deep cleaning going on.

[Anonymous]

In a small town, not DC metro area. Before we were closed, they started cleaning the desks with something that gave several students a rash on their arms. The parents were actually okay with it because at least we were cleaning... =/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went back to school after the supposed deep clean and it was just as gross as ever. No evidence anyone had cleaned anything.


-a teacher

Same. Unless maybe they cleaned around the mouse droppings?

I’m dreading going back and having to clean up all the mouse droppings and dead bugs that have been collecting on surfaces. Just so people have an understanding of what kind of cleaning really goes on—if I want my trash can liner to be changed at all during an entire school year I have to bring my own and do it myself. The floor of my room past the 2 feet inside the doorway never gets vacuumed either—if I want that done I have to bring in some kind of vacuum and do it myself. Same with any kind of dusting or wiping down of surfaces. The “cleaning” of rooms is cursory at best. Hopefully that will change.

This. Teacher here. The only cleaning we get is trash removal. During winter and spring breaks, they wax the hallways. That's it. Nobody is wiping down anything. Nobody is sweeping or mopping the floors. My chairs are still in a stack so whatever magical cleaning stuff they sprayed only disinfected the top chairs.

[Anonymous]

I'm a sub, so I was frequently at different schools. One school I often worked at is older and is always filthy. The floors in the staff bathrooms look like they haven't been mopped in 40 years; same for the floor in the cafeteria. Before schools closed, I had stopped subbing at the school, because the building maintenance manager refused to put soap and paper towels in the student bathrooms; he was tired of them "wasting" supplies. Do I think that that school will be any cleaner whenever it opens? NO!! It will be just as dirty as before. If parents think schools are magically going to start deep-cleaning, when they haven't been all along, they are dreaming.

Even at the cleaner schools I worked at, the building maintenance crews didn't clean desks;; it is up to the teachers. Some would have the kids wipe them down at the end of the day. In the special ed classes I subbed in, the paraeducators would use wipes to sanitize the desks and chairs as the kids were packing up. I don't see how the building services crews can tackle cleaning surfaces in every classroom, every night; it's going to come down to the teachers/students cleaning their own areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No place in the history of schools or stores have ever had a ‘deep cleaning’.

- works in clean room

+1. There will not be deep cleanings.

Our school sent out emails about deep cleaning and hand sanitizer before schools were closed. I didn’t see anything different than the regular nightly cleaning that did not involve the desks. Hand sanitizer was never delivered to classes despite multiple emails assuring parents it was being used everywhere.

[Anonymous]

I’m hoping a decent UV process will be available. Like this.

https://uvpod.net/uv-light-uses-for-schools-and-universities/

[Anonymous]

I adore our school custodians who are amazing. They sweep, mop, wax the floors, the bathrooms are spotless, the trash is removed, the rugs are vacuumed. They also use this bleach bomb thing they set off once a month on weekends that is supposed to disinfect everything. On Mondays, my eyes burn. But, the tables are absolutely filthy if I don't have time to clean them. And the math manipulatives? The dice? The shared supplies? I'm not kidding when I say no one has ever cleaned any of those. Ever.

I suspect that this fall, if we go back, I am going to have to decide what current job responsibility I have that I will stop doing in order to try and keep some semblance of cleanliness. Maybe some of the grading of work is going to have to stop. I don't know.

[Anonymous]

When I worked in a developmental Kindergarten in another state we were required to disinfect all surfaces and toys that were in use with diluted bleach. The fumes were minimal and the kids were generally healthy, missing few days of school for illness.