In the deserted lobby of the school, the visitors found an empty desk and a sign-in book. Further down the hall, two security guards eating lunch cheerfully pointed them to the cafeteria but didn’t bother to ask who they were or why they were there.

The visitors next made a left and proceeded down the hall into the girls’ restroom, where they found toilets filled to the brim with human waste. There were no doors on the stalls, no soap at the sinks. None of the toilets was usable. The stench filled the building.

While other parents look forward to their children going back to school, parents of Walker-Jones students say they feel safer keeping their children at home. Several parents are considering filing lawsuits.

"The first time I set foot in Walker-Jones, I walked a-round for 15 minutes and no one asked who I was," said Sam Benson, whose 9-year-old son has been injured twice at the school.

Benson said he is willing to risk being confronted by officials from the D.C. government’s Child Protective Services in order to keep his son out of the school.

"If that’s what I have to face, then I will," Benson said. "I have no other choice as long as they (school officials) keep sweeping us under the rug."

About 30 parents from the Tyler House, Sursum Corda and Golden Rule housing complexes have met regularly since February to discuss problems at the school.

Sheila Hardy, whose two daughters attend Walker-Jones, said students choose to "hold it" all day and go to the bathroom when they get home. Some children go outside to relieve themselves in the grass, she said.

"It’s getting to the point where I feel I have to go to the school and clean it myself," she said.

Other parents tell of an incident earlier this year in which a stranger in a school restroom accosted a girl. The man ripped her shirt off and fled, said Joyce Robinson-Paul, a local ANC commissioner. The girl was not injured and no police report was filed.

School principal Antoinette Wells said she forwarded parents’ concerns to the D.C. Board of Education.

Meanwhile, water leaks into the cafeteria from an adjacent utility area.

"We’re making an effort to look at the plumbing concerns," said Assistant Superintendent Joyce Jamerson. "We’ve talked to an engineer about replacing the sump pump in the basement, which is where the water is coming from."

In response to repeated complaints from parents, a team of retired school administrators assessed conditions at Walker-Jones in May. The team spent five hours interviewing students and faculty, and inspecting the school. They forwarded to Superintendent Arlene Ackerman a report that included evidence of roaches, leaks and lack of supplies.

Since then, nothing has been done, said Jerald Woody, vice president of D.C. Public Schools PTA and a member of the assessment team.

"Principal Wells told us the bathroom doors have been on order for years," Woody said.

The missing doors on the restroom stalls at Walker-Jones were not listed on the 1998 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Capital Improvements repairs for D.C. Public Schools. Corps of Engineers spokesman Denise Tann said inspectors were sent to the school Aug. 5 for evaluations.

Beverly Lofton, director of communications for D.C. Public Schools, did not respond to repeated telephone calls about school conditions but apparently referred those questions to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Recently, Ackerman dismissed 29 principals in D.C. Public Schools. Walker-Jones’ principal was not one of them.

Parents say other complaints about Walker-Jones aren’t just physical.

Woody said he also found problems with the school’s PTA. He said the PTA consisted mostly of teachers, yet the president was taking $5 dues from parents.

"It is not a legitimate PTA," said Woody, who attended a PTA meeting on May 5. "They didn’t even have bylaws and couldn’t tell us what their mission statement was. No one could tell me what happened to the money. The whole thing was a joke."

Although meetings between parents and their children’s teachers were scheduled for after the meeting, parents said the schedule was suddenly cut short. Benson and Hardy said Wells ended the meeting as soon as parents began questioning the restroom conditions and raising other complaints.

"As soon as it was time for the parents to go talk with the teachers, she said we were out of time," Benson said. He has kept extensive documentation of letters, phone calls and reports about the school and is among the parents demanding Wells’ resignation.

Wells declined to comment on the situation.

Although the PTA situation has since been resolved, other problems with school personnel persist, parents say.

Benson cites an incident in which he was not notified his son was hurt on the playground.

"I asked Dr. Wells why she didn’t call me to let me know my son was hurt and you know she had the nerve to tell me my son doesn’t know his phone number?" Benson said.

"Quante is 9 years old and not only does he know our phone number, he knows his grandmother’s, my sister’s number and my brother’s pager."

In another incident, Benson said, teachers stood by while two other students jumped his son.

"When I questioned this, Ms. Jamerson said that teachers have the right not to break up fights," Benson said.

Jamerson said teachers are not required to break up fights and many teachers fear for their own safety around fighting students.

The mother of one Walker-Jones student told the superintendent in a June 17 letter that school officials allowed her 9-year-old son to be unlawfully taken from the school March 23 by his father, whom she thought was in jail. The mother, who said school officials knew she had sole custody of her son, also complained that she was told to leave the school on March 23 when she became upset while attempting to seek school officials help in stopping the boy’s father from taking him.

Another concern is special education. Sheila Hardy said school officials for a long time ignored her requests that they test her two daughters, whom she suspects may have learning disabilities because she, too, has them.

"I was told that it may be passed down to my children and they never tested them to find out," said Hardy, who was told by her daughters’ teacher that the girls just sit in class.

"I know when I was struggling in school and I didn’t understand, I would just sit there too," the mother said.

Both girls, whose school performance required them to attend summer school, recently were tested, Hardy said.

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator