It is late, around seven PM, and the parking lot is completely empty. Except for the mass amount of trash, from Taco John’s wrappers to cans of energy drinks. Recently, students have been leaving the parking lot trashier than a garbage dump. Kids have no idea how to clean up for themselves, nor do they understand that after they get food for lunch, there are trashcans waiting for them as they enter the building.

Teachers do not even realize this problem because none of them park on the student side of the parking lot. “Uh, I’ve never seen the student parking lot so have no clue what it might be trashed.  Ask a teacher or secretary who might park there,” Chemistry and Anatomy teacher Jennifer Lehman said.

Since the teachers do not park near the student lot, hall monitors are some of the only adults who would see it. “I think the student parking lot here at Johnston High school is a mess,” campus monitor Eric Irwin said.“When I go out after lunch I see a lot of trash out there. What makes it worse, is that it is trash next to drivers doors and passengers doors, which means that kids are just getting out of their car and leaving their trash right there.”

Some students notice the mess. Other students ignore the mess and add to it. “During the winter, when it was really snowy and they didn’t clean it off, so there was ice and gross stuff all over the ground, it was really annoying,” Lexi Gorsh ‘21 said. “It was hard to get places, and with the parking lot so busy it became hard to navigate it.”

George Smith, the director of the grounds, recently talked about his concerns with the messy parking lot. “I am sorry to say that we do not have a custodian assigned to picking up the parking lot at JHS,” Smith said. “JHS is a 380,000 square foot building that is maintained by a total of 11 people divided by 3 shifts.  All of those people are very busy with cleaning assignments inside the building.  I believe there are 17 acres of concrete at that facility. We measured the concrete area when we were calculating time and cost for plowing snow. That is a good point to consider because the other buildings in the district are covered in the same manner with the amount of staff.”

Students and teachers believe that the way the school looks represents how much kids appreciate the school. “Kids should take real pride in their school,” Irwin said, “one because it looks bad, and two, because when the wind picks up, it blows all of the trash in front of the school and it looks horrible.”

If students stop being lazy, then the parking lot would have way less trash in it. “People should pick it up, I mean, there’s probably a trash can five feet away from where you threw it,” Gorsh said. “Or just shove it into your car or bag and throw it away when you get home, do not put it in the parking lot.”