Salt Lake Tribune | 1915-11-17 | Page 6 | Rapid Advance

RAPID ADVANCE. Of late years much attention has been given the subject of school house sanitation, sani-tation, and the result has been highly satisfactory. There is still much to be done before the health of the children is properly safeguarded. Less than half the states, according to a .bulletin of the national bureau of education, have laws requiring proper ventilation of the school houses. In tho matter of cleansing cleans-ing and disinfecting, the same authority author-ity states, that slightly more than one-femrth one-femrth of the states have regulations which control conditions to any degree outside of the districts themselves. Some of the law-s and regulations are declared to be almost mode); others wholly inadeqnate. A few state boards, however, are commended for doing notable nota-ble work in this particular. Special cleaning and disinfecting follow in seven states immediately upon discovering discov-ering in any school of any of a certain class of diseases. Some form of protection protec-tion against fire and panic is found in thirty-six states. Blanket regulations, or tlie power to make such regulations, exist in twelve states. General or special spe-cial construction with a view to prevention pre-vention is dealt with in ten states. Kansas was the. pioneer iu the revolt against the. common drinking cup, but the other states fell into line so rapidly that al the present time half of the number have either a law or a regulation regula-tion regarding drinking cups. This reform re-form has come , about within the past five years. In thirty of the states laws have been passed to regulate the water supply of the public schools with very satisfactory results. Thirty-eight states have some " regulation regarding the school site, and nearly all of these provisions pro-visions are state-wide in their application applica-tion and are mandatory in character. These provisions include the proximity of "nuisances," availability of the site and its size. Nineteen of 'the states have lajrs prohibiting pro-hibiting the location of school buildings within a specified distance from places where liquor is sold, from gambling houses, houses of prostitution and noisy and smoky factories. The bulletin shows a rapid advance in all these matters mat-ters since the good work first began, but perfection is not clalmod and much remains to be done. Utah is well abreast of the times in all matters pertaining per-taining to .education and the health of the school children, but even in this state there is room for improvement. Public sentiment favors the latest and best equipment and the most stringent regulations, and that without regard to the expense entailed.