Line #32 Main/AfterSchoolCleaningDuty


1	The final bell rings, signifying the end of the school day. While most of the kids are gathering their things and preparing to head home, a small group have resigned themselves to staying behind, as it is their turn for After School Cleaning Duty. They must make sure that the desks are straightened, the chalkboard is cleaned, dust is beaten out of erasers, and the trash cans are emptied before they can leave. For some, this assignment may have been given as [[PunishmentDetail punishment]] for getting caught [[AsleepInClass sleeping in class]]. For others, it may simply be their turn for duties shared amongst all the students in the class or part of ClassRep and club membership responsibilities.
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3	A common trope in school-life stories, After School Cleaning Duty serves to get a single character or small group alone, away from their peers and outside of teacher supervision. This could be a setup for an accidental romantic meeting between the male and female leads, or a chance for the AlphaBitch or TheBully to torment the character without fear of interruption. In {{Horror}} stories, an empty school can become a creepy setting for any student assigned to cleaning duty who is unfortunate enough to be stuck there alone with the MonsterOfTheWeek.
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5	An ExtremeDoormat will often accept cleaning duty without complaint, even if the job is passed off to her by another student. More rebellious students will seek to get out of After School Cleaning Duty if at all possible... failing that, they will take the opportunity to see what ''other'' kinds of trouble they can get into while no one else is around.
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7	Rivals forced into cleaning duty together may get the chance to learn more about each other, possibly realizing how similar they actually are.
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9	This trope can lead to characters being accidentally [[LockedInARoom locked in a storage closet]], especially if a potential love interest is helping out. This trope can be especially troublesome for [[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld students who double as superheroes]], as an ill-timed battle or a misuse of supernatural abilities can leave the area they were supposed to clean looking even worse the next day.
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11	While this is mostly seen in stories coming from Japan (cf., Real Life below), the use of this as a punishment is occasionally seen elsewhere (especially at a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors, ElaborateUniversityHigh, or AcademyOfAdventure).
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13	----
14	!!Examples:
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16	[[foldercontrol]]
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18	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
19	* Haru of ''Anime/TheCatReturns'' offers to take her friend's cleaning duty after school so that she can attend a ping pong match. Her job is dusting the erasers.
20	* ''Anime/ProjectAKo'': At one point A-ko is assigned After School Cleaning Duty for being habitually LateForSchool. While it went well at first, with A-ko using her super strength to easily stack up the desks, a run-in with B-ko's gang left the classroom (and a good portion of the school itself) demolished, much to her teacher's chagrin.
21	* ''Manga/BusoRenkin'': At the very beginning of the series, SadistTeacher Mita assigns protagonist Kazuki the job of pulling weeds from the courtyard after school as punishment for losing his school-issued bag. It turns out that the teacher is really the [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent homunculus]] that had [[FirstEpisodeResurrection killed Kazuki the night before]] and only gave him the cleaning duty so he could [[ImAHumanitarian eat him]] somewhere there would be no witnesses.
22	* One scene in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' where Shinji and Rei stay behind to clean the school, and Shinji causes Rei to blush by remarking on how she has very motherly mannerisms.
23	* ''VideoGame/{{Amagami}} SS'': In the Ayatsuji arc, it was during cleaning duty one evening when ClassRep Ayatsuji, unaware that she was being watched by the protagonist Junichi, revealed her [[BitchInSheepsClothing true nature]] as she flipped out over all the trash other students left behind.
24	* Shows up in ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'' for Chiyo's [[ADayInTheLimelight focus chapter/episode]], where she, Tomo and Osaka are on cleaning duty that day. Tomo just plays around, while Osaka tries to do a good job but has some difficulties with the equipment.
25	* In ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'', Keima meets Elsie for the first time because Ayumi dumped all the after-school cleaning duties on him.
26	* In ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', Takashi Yamazaki (the class president) tells Syaoran to do this as a bit of light hazing.
27	* ''Manga/WeddingPeach'': Yousuke has to stay behind to clean the school's pool as punishment for being late. In the first of many AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther, Momoko stays behind to help and their relationship takes a step forward.
28	* ''Manga/GakuenAlice'': Mikan gets stuck with this job as a no-star.
29	* Sara and Becky do this as one of their many duties as the school's scullery maids in ''Anime/PrincessSarah''.
30	* In one episode/chapter of ''Manga/HidamariSketch'', Yuno was on cleaning duty and flushed her keys down the toilet, forcing her to sleep over with the other Hidamari tenants until the landlady could find her a spare key.
31	* Chapter 6 of ''Manga/SakuraTrick'' has the girls cleaning the pool. Swimsuits ensue.
32	* Yugami and Chihiro get this as a one-week punishment in ''Manga/YugamiKunNiWaTomodachiGaInai'' for disrupting a class...while StandingInTheHall as an earlier punishment.
33	* In ''Anime/PrincessTutu'', Ahiru often gets stuck doing this, usually as punishment for failing to keep up with her fellow ballet students.
34	* The first chapter/episode of ''Manga/MyDressUpDarling'' has a couple of male students dumping the after-class cleaning duties on male lead Wakana Gojo. Then Marin Kitagawa comes along to help him, and when she realizes the others took advantage of him, she tells him he shouldn't be an ExtremeDoormat and say no when he doesn't want to do something.
35	* In ''Manga/YamadaKunAndTheSevenWitches'', after Yamada's friends forget him the first time, he devotes himself to his cleaning duty, which he formerly used to hate, to have at least some purpose in his school life.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Fan Works]]
39	* In ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'' Kyon is shown doing this a few times.
40	* Sunset Shimmer is subjected to many months of this in ''Fanfic/LongRoadToFriendship'' after she [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls1 destroyed Canterlot High School]]. She gets off of cleaning duty a few times after she gets some CharacterDevelopment.
41	* ''Fanfic/ToForgetIsUnforgivable'': Katsuki usually volunteers to clean up after class because it helps him to empty his head and calm down.
42	[[/folder]]
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44	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
45	* In ''Film/EasyA'', Olive is put on cleanup duty after she calls a classmate a "twat" at school. During the afternoon she reconnects with Brandon, an old friend she had fallen out of touch with who is being punished for getting in a fight with a guy who was harassing him for being gay. This afternoon leads into the main plot of the movie, as it is here that Olive and Brandon discuss the ways that rumors of sex can change a person's life, and Brandon gets the idea of Olive helping him pretend to be straight.
46	* One of Clark's changes at East Side in ''Film/LeanOnMe'' is to have detention students help pick up trash and clean up graffiti.
47	* In ''Loose Screws'', Arsenhole the principal punishes three of the four students that attempted to sneak a peek at the French language teacher by getting them to do cleaning jobs in the school.
48	* ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'' has students in detention being told to pull staples out of old magazines for donation to a recycling center.
49	[[/folder]]
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51	[[folder:Literature]]
52	* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, this is often given as detention at Hogwarts. There is usually a requirement that [[ChoresWithoutPowers the cleaning must be performed without magic]].
53	* The Creator/BeverlyCleary book ''Ellen Tebbits'' is an unusual example where the main character ''wants'' to clap erasers at recess, and thinks her teacher hates her because she's never picked for it.
54	* In ''Literature/TheGraveyardBook'', Bod haunts Mo when she has to stay after school to clean the science lab.
55	* In ''[[Literature/TheGreatBrain The Great Brain at the Academy]]'', cleaning the bathrooms and PeelingPotatoes are two of the standard punishments. Tom finds a bright side to it when he finds the dormitory bathroom provides a handy way to sneak out of the school to buy candy. Even when they're not being punished, every student has an assigned area to clean and has to take a turn helping in the kitchen.
56	* In the ''Literature/DirtyBertie'' story "Fire!", Bertie is made to sweep up the schoolyard after putting out Mr. Grouch(the janitor)'s bonfire, thinking the school to be on fire.
57	* In ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidCabinFever'', Greg and his friend Rowley try to set up an event at their school, but the green ink from the cardboard signs they put up runs in the rain and they take them off, but it stains the wall. This gets them in trouble with the teachers and even the police, who don't know who did it or why and think it's vandalism. A box to write anonymous letters gets put up and Rowley writes "me and Greg Heffley stained the wall", so Greg is made to bleach the stains off.
58	* ''Literature/TheScholomance'': All the students at the titular school are delegated a weekly maintenance shift as part of the course load. Much like everything else at the Scholomance, the school doesn't care who does the work as long as it gets done, so there's an unofficial "maintenance track" for students who take on extra maintenance shifts from enclavers in exchange for alliances. On the one hand, if a student makes it through all four years, they've got a guaranteed alliance with an enclaver and a potential invite into their enclave; on the other hand, taking on so many maintenance shifts can be dangerous, as it leaves a student susceptible to mal attacks and at risk of falling behind with their own school work, which can be just as fatal.
59	[[/folder]]
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61	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
62	* Detention at ''Franchise/{{Degrassi}}'' usually takes this form.
63	* ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver'': Beaver's occasionally seen cleaning erasers or the like. In "Beaver's Crush", Beaver volunteering to cleanup for Miss Canfield leads to the other students calling him a TeachersPet.
64	* ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': After Jade makes it [[WoundedGazelleGambit look like Tori hit her in the face]], Tori is forced to clean the school theater as her punishment. To make things worse, this happens after there's been a food fight there.
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67	[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
68	* In ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', Charlie Brown is selected to pound clean the school chalkboard erasers outside. He considers it a great honor, but he reconsiders considering how he chokes on the chalk dust clouds.
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71	[[folder:Radio]]
72	* Alluded to occasionally on ''Radio/OurMissBrooks''. In "Spare That Rod!", while cleaning Mr. Conklin's office, Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass find an old letter to Mr. Darwell, Mr. Conklin's predecessor as principal. They type Mr. Conklin's name on the ten-year-old envelope... PlayedForLaughs.
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75	[[folder:Video Games]]
76	* One of the tasks the teacher has to inspire his class into doing in ''VideoGame/OsuTatakaeOuendan2''. If you fail the segment, the class mocks him by taking his declaration to "make this classroom sparkle!" literally by hanging up a disco ball.
77	* This is one of the options for detention in ''VideoGame/TheSims3''
78	* In the opening cutscene of ''VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBustersHiddenTreasure'', the students of Acme Looniversity clean out the school's attic. This is how Buster finds a map leading to a hidden pirate treasure. Montana Max steals the map from him, intending to find the treasure for himself.
79	* In ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'', every day between 3:30 and 4:00 pm is cleaning time, where everyone except the bullies, delinquents, and the student council clean the school. It's the only time of the day Yandere-chan can carry cleaning supplies like a mop or bleach and not be considered suspicious.
80	[[/folder]]
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82	[[folder:Webcomics]]
83	* Tedd and Elliot in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' had to stay to catch their experiment that [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-01-28 unexpectedly came to life.]]
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86	[[folder:Web Original]]
87	* Team Kimba of the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' has gotten this punishment more than once at [[SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy]]. This can range from just working in the kitchens or with the ground crews up to the really nasty punishments like helping in the sewers (where there are monsters) or helping at Hawthorne dorm (where some very powerful students have no control over their powers).
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90	[[folder:Western Animation]]
91	* ''WesternAnimation/AngelaAnaconda'': Mrs. Brinks always makes Angela clap erasers after school. Angela has gotten good at it.
92	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
93	** Bart Simpson has been punished in this manner more than a few times.
94	** School bully Nelson is punished this way and starts dating Lisa when she gets put in detention.
95	* In the ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' episode, "Sheepskin Deep", [[BackToSchool Baloo has to go back to elementary school]] so that he can finish it and attend a class reunion. When he cuts class to make his deliveries for Higher for Hire, Mrs. Morrisey gives him detention and does the same to Kit for trying to cover for him. While in detention, the school principal, Mr. Pomeroy assigns them to clap erasers, which Baloo tries to speed up by strapping the erasers to the Sea Duck's propellers. This results in Mr. Pomeroy being covered in eraser dust and threatening to expel Baloo.
96	* In ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'', the Winx Club is often grounded and the punishment is often cleaning the school while the rest of Alfea goes to a concert or another social activity. Usually, their love interests come to help them and it turns into a party, and the evil villains usually show up too.
97	[[/folder]]
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99	[[folder:Real Life]]
100	* In most culinary schools, the last thing a class will do at the end of any particular term will be to clean their classroom kitchen down to the bare steel and concrete, effectively sanitizing it for use by the next class. Every pot is scrubbed, every dish is washed, every scrap of food left in a refrigerator is dumped or (if still useable) stored, and so on.
101	* [[http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=830&catid=23&subcatid=150 This article]] has a section on school cleaning in Japan, which explains the reasons given for why schools in Japan use staff and students instead of having janitors or cleaners. Most "public" schools in Asia only employ janitorial staff for repairs and use students for the daily cleaning.
102	[[/folder]]

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