Envoy On-Line Archives

Special Education Students assigned Trash Duty

Vancouver school district has students sort garbage - label practice as developing "job skills"

by Phil Jordan

October 4, 2003

The Evergreen School District in Vancouver, Washington has been having special education students sort trash and perform janitorial duties.  The District calls this activity part of their "Work Experience Program" and defends the practice as appropriate.  Meanwhile, the students who are told to perform these tasks are subject to ridicule by other students. 

That these students are told to perform menial tasks speaks volumes about how school district officials perceive special education students.  The school district apparently believes that special education students can be forced to do undesirable tasks because they have disabilities, and that this is the type of "education" that should be provided for them.  To describe this sort of activity as a work experience program is shameful.  School districts collect public funding to provide appropriate public education to students with disabilities.  However, in this case, they have opted to deny these students an appropriate vocational program and have chosen instead to use these students as unpaid janitorial workers. 

There have been reports of teasing and harassment of these students by their peers, especially when they sort trash.  One girl who was assigned trash duty was reportedly called "Stinky" by her classmates. 

Publicly, school district officials have defended their actions.  Candace Baker, director of special services for the Evergreen School District was quoted by the Associated Press (AP) as saying, "if you look at the real world, what you have is individuals who would be doing those jobs."  Although the district has stopped their odious practice for now, Baker defiantly told an AP reporter "but that doesn't mean we won't use it again." 

John Finders, parent of one of the students assigned to trash duty, responded angrily to the district's defense of treating special education students in this manner.  Finders was quoted in the same AP article as saying, "They define it as 'life experience.'  My son's not going to be going through trash cans when he's out of there.  The schools are hard up for money, so now they've got (children with disabilities) doing janitorial work.  They owe my son some educational time." 

Legal advocates from WPAS have been trying to gather more information about the so-called "work experience program" in the Evergreen School District.  WPAS would be happy to hear from anyone who has information regarding the situation in Vancouver.  People who wish to talk with WPAS can do so by telephone (1-800-562-2702 voice or 1-800-905-0209 tty), by e-mail (wpas@wpas-rights.org), or by mail (see address at the bottom of this page). 

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