NEW YORK, June 14 (UPI) -- A New York middle school is being investigated for allegedly disciplining students with military-style toilet cleaning punishments, officials said.
Instead of detention, students are being given janitorial duties including cleaning up feces, the New York Daily News reported Monday.
"It was gross. I did not want to do it," Randy Estevez, 14, an eighth-grader at In-Tech Academy in the South Bronx, said.
Estevez's mother said she didn't mind the punishment.
"I think it's okay. He learned his lesson," Estevez said. "It's the only way he's going to learn. Now, next time he wants to misbehave, he'll think about the punishment and behave better."
But another mother whose son was given bathroom duty says she strenuously objected.
"I don't agree with that punishment. It's degrading. It's not the right punishment for an educational institution," Cindy Rodriguez, 37, said. "They need to find other forms of punishment."
School officials are investigating, Education Department spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said.
"There is an active investigation of corporal punishment," she said. "If the current allegations are proved true, appropriate actions will be taken."
