Chatter reverberates off of the walls in the commons. Students laugh and gossip while taking bites of their lunches. However, as the last few minutes of the period loom, so do the janitors. They weave through tables picking up discarded wrappers that students have left behind.
Garbages are planted at every corner allowing for a quick way to throw out any wrappers. Yet, students still believe that leaving their wrappers for someone else to clean is okay. Well, it is not. While you may be cleaned up after in your house, it is still rude to assume the janitors are supposed to do the same.
“It makes me uncomfortable to be in an unclean environment where students don’t clean up their stuff,” senior Kiera Soliz said.
Being in highschool, this should not be a problem where students treating the school like their bedroom. Seeing students push over chairs, spill their drinks, and throw wrappers on the floor is disheartening to janitors.
While everyone understands that the janitors’ job is to clean, an HHS student must uphold a level of respect. Being able to clean up after yourself is not only a life skill, it is giving less busy, unnecessary work to the already hard-at-work staff.
“To be blatant about it, I mean, that’s not respectful for anybody,” principal Marcus Belin said.
Without cleaning up, students leave the school looking like a pigsty, thinking it is some funny joke. It is not a joke to dirty the place you receive your education. It is not a joke to break or throw things for the attention of everyone else.
When buying a lunch, it is yours; meaning you are responsible for eating it and cleaning up the mess you made doing so. Think about how the janitorial staff feels when students drop garbage in front of them while they are already hard at work.
If students are not punished or even aware of their actions, there is no solution. While punishment should not be necessary for students of this age, without it, there will be a colossal amount of work piled into the janitor’s hands. Adults also need to model this behavior, instead of walking past garbage on the ground, discard it in one of the provided garbage cans.
“If they’re not being reprimanded or we’re not holding them accountable, then it’s never going to change,” social studies teacher Erik Lachel said.
It is not that hard to pick up a wrapper and throw it out. Seriously. Have some respect and stop expecting staff to be at your beck and call to clean up after you. After all, respect is quite literally in Huntley’s motto.
