Jr High girls are smart!

Here is a funny story from Danny's latest book, Loving Our Kids On Purpose.

"The junior high girls had discovered lipstick, and the bathroom mirrors had lip marks on them because the girls were trying to get the perfect lip print on the glass. The janitors were going nuts! They had to clean all these greasy mirrors in every bathroom of the school every day. With the janitors ready to revolt, this principal decided to call an all-school assembly and make an announcement. She was going to show them a hammer.
So she gathered them in there and said,

“Now hear this! Anyone who is caught pressing their lips on the mirrors of my school is going to regret the fact that their lips ever touched the glass. Are we communicating here? Am I clear?”
The boys were looking at each other, wondering how they could get their hands on some lipstick, because now they knew the way to make the principal go nuts. Well, the announcement didn’t work. The problem just got worse. She mailed a newsletter to the parents of the students. That didn’t work. She comissioned the school's toughest teacher to do his thing. That didn’t work. Then she called Jim Fay, the founder of The Love and Logic Institute, to do his thing. He flew out to the school to meet with the principal.
Jim and the principal were standing in the hallway when a new custodian approached them and said, “Excuse me, but I couldn’t help hearing that you are helping us out with the lipstick problem. Can I help?”
Jim Fay said, “Well, I haven’t really come up with a solution just yet. But whatever you can do—take your best shot.”
The custodian asked when the first break was, and the principal said 10:30. And so at 10:30 the custodian wheeled her cart into the girl’s bathroom. She spun it around in a dramatic fashion so the girls would be sure to notice her. The custodian said, “Oh, excuse me.” With all eyes watching, she grabbed a squeegee and a sponge, walked over the toilet, splashed the sponge into the toilet and then slopped it up on the mirrors. The girls just stood there in disbelief as she ran the squeegee up and down the mirrors.
One girl started screaming, “Eeew! What are you doing?”
The custodian turned to her. “What? I do it like this all the time!”
What was left to be said? What additional point could have been made to drive this home and teach them a lesson? Nothing. They just had some decisions to make.
Kids are really smart. They just need some good information to work with. You don’t need too many words. Let your actions do most of the talking and teach them that when you say you are going to do something, you mean it. Follow through with what you say. I tell my kids, “You can do that if you want to, but I wouldn’t.” And they begin to think, “Why not?” It’s not my job to take over their thinking. Yelling doesn’t work for me."