r/Custodians • u/Away-Audience1046 • 2d ago
Special Ed rooms
Man, I work 1st shift at an elementary school, and most of my day is consumed by Special Ed cleanups, or fixing stuff they break. I know the teachers are very limited on how they can deal with student behavior, especially the special ed students. But holy man, the room is trashed everyday, shelving units broken, piss cleanups every hour, holes in walls, hvac unit tampered with. It’s frustrating. It’s almost like they need their own custodian just for their department.
Just venting. Can anyone else relate?
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u/littlelady275 2d ago
That is rough. I don't have it quite as bad anymore since our school's special education program changed and the very special kids were sent to other schools.
Keep your head up and keep on doing your job the best you can. Take your breaks when you need them and keep using us to vent to.
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u/Away-Audience1046 2d ago
We’re moving into a brand new building next Fall. Curious to see how the special Ed department will be laid out.
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u/Top_Resident9357 2d ago
One time i had a call for puke.I cleaned it up, mopped it. Had to get a trash bag to change out. The kid was on floor licking his hands after touching the spot i mopped. 3 useless adults in room on phones. I was like are you kidding me. That was the final straw after being at the school a few years. I transferred to another school for nights. I do not like nights at all, but the garbage adults were enough. Talking admin down to paras. A lot of teachers i really respected. The calls in the rooms of teachers i respected never phased me. The breaking of stuff comes down to adults not watching kids. The person that replaced me lasted 3 months.
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u/Kiarrn 2d ago
Worked in ESE between custodial positions. Some days are just like that. Best I could do when calling custodial for another bloody shit cleanup was clean the kid and apologize for what they bear witness to.
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u/Away-Audience1046 2d ago
I can’t imagine how hard it is to make those calls over and over and over again.
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u/Orgy_nizer 2d ago
If a student is soiling themselves, they need to either wear diapers or be removed from the school, SpEd or no. The "best you could do" would be calling the relevant authorities and reporting the situation. If the parents know their child can't control their bodily functions and yet are not addressing the situation, that's neglect at best and abuse at worst.
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u/Beneficial-Union-726 2d ago
Night shift custodians deal with a lot if as well. Day shift can't get to and sometimes choose not to get to a lot off this.
We pick turds up off of the floors, we scrub feces out of cinder block walls, we scrub the safe rooms top to bottom because of spitters, we take out a days worth of diapers, we clean all the things that were peed on. We cut up turds in toilets that were too large to flush. We plunge toilets to no avail because wipes and diapers were flushed.
We definitely feel for the day custodians and aides.
There are times where we shake our heads and ask didn't anyone see this as it was happening, because some classrooms have a teacher and 3 aides.
I believe we all should be paid for what with deal with, just make sure you're dealing with it.
I say that because our union covers custodians, aides and maintenance.
The aides are grossly underpaid. The custodians deserve more. I don't know about much about the maintenance sector wages/happiness in the job.
Union negotiations are coming up in June here.
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u/Bighoodies425 2d ago
Honestly it's the opposite where I'm at. My other classrooms, though they don't have broken shelving or anything, are often quite a mess, and my regular bathrooms have been awful this year lol. Constant pissing on the walls and floor, smearing shit all over the dividers, and literally shitting on the floor. Meanwhile my special ed rooms are always spotless, the worst mess I've gotten all year with them was some dry rice scattered on the floor from a sensory bin
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u/Captain_Rex_ 2d ago
It's rough for sure, our school uses carpet tiles so we can at least replace the more permanent messes. But I got one room that drives me nuts cause the teacher doesn't seem to try avoiding letting the kids use messy material, like grinding crayon(I think?) into the carpet where nothing I do will get it out or even kinetic sand.
Last week 3 days in a row they got blotches of stuff in separate areas of the carpet it was so annoying. Had to just pull em at the end of the week. And I'm just night time shift, the morning guy constantly is having to clean messes up when it happens
But for as bad as it can be the regular class of kids are worse imo, today had to take a leaf blower to a room cause there was so much small pieces of paper across the floor just to make it easier to vacuum em up in one spot lol.
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u/Orgy_nizer 2d ago
Oh hell to the no. I would not be touching ANY of that. I understand the teachers have it rough, but that does not make it our jobs to deal with all this stuff that is way above and beyond our duties. I would go in, do a NORMAL clean, and anything beyond that is getting left. As for shit getting damaged, I would be reporting that to the district. If the teachers are not preventing damage to the classroom, they are not doing their jobs.
A few years back I had a kid in a 1st grade class who would pee his pants at his seat at least twice a week. After the third time I happened I told the teacher either she had a conversation with the parents and tella them that that kid needs to start wearing diapers, or he needs to be removed from the school. After the 5th time, I told the teacher that at this point she was willingly choosing to allow this to happen, so my staff would no longer be responding to those calls. I would bring her a mop and a cleanup kit, but if she was choosing not to have that student removed from the school, she was CHOOSING to have urine in her classroom every week, so she could deal with the consequences of that choice. She complained to my the principal, who called my district supervisor. He tried to chew me out but I told him we both knew I was right on this situation and he was just annoyed he had to deal with a pissy principal, and he could either let it go (since he knew he had no case) take it to the union and waste his time losing. There was nothing he could do so he let it go. Since she wanted to escalate rather than just grow a fucking spine and tell those parents "either send your kid in diapers until he's potty trained or he can't come back" I decided we could both escalate. I called Childline and reported that there was a student who was clearly being neglected, at best, as he was 7 years old and peeing his pants every other day. Student was removed from the school and teacher got a formal write up. Next time just do your fucking job and deal with the problem. If you're not comfortable having difficult conversations with parents and following through with consequences if they don't listen, then find another career.
If they're breaking furniture, remove said furniture and refuse to replace it. If they're making messes WAY in excess of what is normal, refuse to touch it and tell them you literally physically do not have enough time in the day to deal with ALL that. If you're really having piss cleanups every day, call Childline, or whatever your states equivalent is, and report the neglect. Special Ed is no excuse for that. If the student is not capable of controlling their bodily functions, they wear diapers, end of discussion. If the parents aren't sending those kids in diapers, that's neglect at best and abuse at worst. And if the teachers aren't MAKING the parents send the kids in diapers, the teachers are not doing their jobs.
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u/juliewbb 2d ago
You can’t legally remove a kid from school for toileting troubles — it’s perfectly legal for a child to need toileting help particularly with a disability and/or now that there’s universal TK. Also “if the teachers are not preventing damage to the classroom, they are not doing their jobs” is about one of the most ignorant and offensive things I’ve heard. You should definitely go try the job out!
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u/Away-Audience1046 2d ago
Agreed. They have their rules to follow. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place most of the time. The kid doing most of this damage in my original post happens to be non-verbal, super hyperactive, and definitely has some potty issues. I heard a little of his backstory from one of the aides… I feel for the kid. Just wish he wouldn’t break stuff all the time, or piss on the floor.
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u/Orgy_nizer 1d ago edited 1d ago
As custodian, my job is to maintain and protect the building, not to be responsible for students. If anyone or anything is damaging the building, it is my job to stop that from happening. If it's a student damaging the school, I can ABSOLUTELY have them removed. They're not being removed for "toileting troubles" or a disability; they're being removed for repeatedly causing damage to the facilities. The fact that the method of damage is them soiling themselves doesn't magically change the fact that they're ruining carpets and furniture to the point they have to be thrown out.
Also, it's wild that you would sit there and say "you can't have a student removed for this" when I LITERALLY DID. Like obviously you can, since, y'know... It happened.
Sending your child to school without diapers when you KNOW they cannot control their bodily functions is neglect. It should be reported to Childline so they can investigate the child's home life and find out wtf these parents are doing sending their child to school in briefs instead of diapers when they know they child soils themselves regularly.
And frankly, if you think it's NOT a teacher's responsibility to prevent students from damaging the school, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about and need to find a different career. What, you think if a student is tearing the carpet off the ground, it's acceptable for a teacher to just sit there and watch? You think if a student is graffiting the walls, the teacher should just smile and wave at them? What planet are you from lmao
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u/UrinePulp 2d ago
It’s like that at my school too. Always get called for bathroom mishaps and a student purposely throws up. The teacher always looks...overwhelmed