SCHOOLS
Guembes says. “I’m appalled.”
Lavert Robertson took over as principal at César Chávez
school in 2012, one year after the district named the K-8
a “beacon” school for its work to combat racial biases that
undermine student achievement.
PPS statistics show César Chávez under Robertson’s
leadership has dramatically reduced its rate of suspen-
sions and expulsions. Three years ago, 12.6 percent of its
students received such discipline, one of the highest rates
in the district. Last year, only 4.1 percent of students were
expelled or suspended.
The so-called “community service” program was
launched this fall, for the 2014-15 school year, parents say.
Robertson defends the practice. “I’m very confi dent with
what we’re doing at César Chavez,” he tells WW. He calls the
newspaper’s questions about the practice “misguided.”
Angel Humphrey is a former full-time physical education
teacher at César Chávez who runs the community service
program. She also defended community service, saying par-
ents who criticized the program had never seen it in action.
“I’m the only person who’s ever seen it fi rsthand,” she says.
Except for the children.
Laura Sosa Ortega’s son Fernando is a 9-year-old
fourth-grader at César Chávez. He was made to pick up
paper off restroom floors, clean Humphrey’s office, and
scrub desks for one week. His actions that led to the pun-
ishment? He says he got in trouble for forming an alliance
with other skilled four-square players so they could win.
“You’re not supposed to team up,” Fernando explains,
“because it’s a game for everybody to play, not just people
who are good.”
It’s harder for him to explain how cleaning the school
helped repair relationships with students whose feelings
he may have hurt on the four-square court.
“I had to clean other people’s garbage instead of other
people cleaning it themselves,” he says.
Adds Fernando’s mother, “What he did wasn’t severe
“SHE’S STILL SO LITTLE.
DISCIPLINE THE KIDS, BUT NOT
THIS STRONGLY.” —CATARINA
SEBASTÍAN, PARENT
enough for them to do this.”
Mark Freimark, who spent 25 years as a PPS custodian,
called César Chávez’s program “totally out of bounds.”
Freimark says having students clean up messes they’ve
made or repair damage they’ve done—cleaning walls
they’ve written on, for example—makes sense. But forced
work for other infractions sends the wrong message.
“That means cleanup is a punishment,” Freimark says,
“and cleanup isn’t a punishment.”
César Chávez’s custodian declined through a union
representative to comment for this story.
School offi cials told parents that children are kept out of
view of other students when they’re cleaning. But parents
tell WW that’s not the case. They say the punishments are
humiliating for students, who have had to perform tasks in
front of other kids.
Cecilia Ortega Martinez says her 6-year-old daughter
burst into tears after fi nding her 9-year-old brother pick-
ing up trash at school. He’d been accused of making crude
gestures with a banana. (The boy says he was laughing at
others, not making the gestures himself.)
Ortega Martinez says the punishment only served to
shame her son and make him feel unsettled in school. “He
doesn’t want to go,” she says. “He’s afraid.”
It’s not clear what precautions the school is taking to
keep kids safe from health hazards such as germ-infested
restroom surfaces and industrial cleaning products.
NEWS
Miles, the district spokeswoman, says children are
supervised and given gloves and only soapy water as a
cleaner. She also says parents are informed of punish-
ments through phone calls or letters.
Viridiana Aguilar says her son told her school offi cials
gave him a cleaner that smelled like chemicals, even
though he has asthma. He had been suspended for hitting
two girls and was ordered to pick up trash in restrooms
and clean Humphrey’s offi ce even after he returned to the
school, she says.
Catarina Sebastían’s daughter, 8-year-old Patricia,
covers her face and looks down at the ground when she
describes how Humphrey made her wipe down doorknobs
with a spray-on cleanser one day during recess.
Her infraction? The second-grader rolled her eyes at a
teacher who had asked her to move away from another girl,
she says.
“She’s still so little,” her mother says. “Discipline the
kids, but not this strongly.”
Roberts Frank, the Lewis & Clark professor, says inap-
propriate punishment could backfi re. “The idea is to foster
empathy and mutual understanding rather than resent-
ment and revenge-seeking behavior,” she says.
Aside from defending the program, Principal Robertson
did not respond to an emailed request for an interview.
At least one administrator for the district, however, has
said the César Chávez program is wrong.
Antonio Lopez, a former César Chávez principal and
curerent assistant superintendent for the district, tells
WW that the school’s community service program is not
OK. Lopez says he was contacted by a concerned César
Chávez parent last week and that he has told Robertson,
the school’s principal, to end the program.
“If it is happening, then it needs to stop,” he says. “Con-
sequences like that are not appropriate.”
Willamette Week MARCH 11, 2015 wweek.com
9