In the past three years, we have been lucky enough to have brand new facilities built for our school district. However, we are already neglecting the new facilities. So many students are taking the new building we have for granted, as they completely forgo any common sense they may have had when it comes to food and their trash. It dumbfounds me, to have such a large number of kids think it is okay to not cleanup after themselves.

Why do kids think it is okay to leave their garbage on the ground in the student lot? Have any of you seen the lot afterschool, void of any cars? It is extremely disappointing, as it is littered with trash. There are fast food wrappers, bags, bottles and cans that have collected throughout the day. There are random things like pens, pencils and dare I say, used Juul pods. It isn’t that hard to walk to a trash can to throw your own trash away. If you really truly are that lazy to even walk to a trash can, then leave it in your car and throw it away when you get home. It’s not that hard.

At lunch, why would you throw your food instead of eat it? What’s the point? The food is made for you to eat, not mess around with. The other day during A lunch, I was sitting at my normal table enjoying my lunch when the guys at the table in front of me began tossing around their food. One kid threw his ham so hard that it stuck to the trophy case in the cafeteria. Then he just left it there. His friends thought it was hilarious, almost falling on the floor laughing and decided to try as well. The next thing I knew, on the trophy case the ham was joined by two sliced kiwi. And again, they just left it there! Do whatever you want with your food but dear golly, clean up after yourselves. There are janitors yes, but they have so much to do already with a building as big as ours. Cleaning a glass case because kids were throwing food at it should not be one of them.

I talked with a Custodian from the school, James Nikolish. He finds that how the way some students treat the school building is shameful and disappointing, especially at the ages we are. “I have younger kids at home and they do a much better job of cleaning up after themselves than what I see here,” Nikolish said.

We are in high school, we should use our brains and common-sense to make reasonable and responsible decisions. We were taught in elementary school to respect others property, and there was serious consequences if that was not up held. Where did those teachings go?

How did kids in our school acquire the mindset, “someone else will clean up after me”? That’s not true now nor will it ever be true in the future. You need to clean up your own messes, trash and garbage. It is not someone else’s job.