Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development wants the state to rewrite its child labor rules to follow federal standards after a father filed a formal complaint with the agency that his son was used for “forced labor” by a school librarian.
The incident began when a Monona Grove School District librarian proposed that an 8-year-old student work 19 recesses at 50 cents apiece to replace a $9.25 book that he had destroyed, reported the November 3 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But after two recesses he told his father, who then filed the complaint.
School spokesman Jeff Avery admitted that the librarian should not have assigned a value to the visits because it amounted to hiring the boy. But, Avery said, the boy worked with books. “We didn’t have him tote bricks,” he noted.
The school district compensated the boy with a check for $1.13. The father has agreed to pay for the book.
Public hearings for the proposed change are set for December.
Posted November 8, 1999.