However, if they were to walk among those same tables, now empty, when the students swing their backpacks over their shoulders and start for their next period, they would be shocked and dismayed to find, scattered across the tables, beverage bottles, oil-stained lunch trays stuffed with half-full containers and dirty utensils, and tin-foil chip bags braided into tables, and untouched packages of apples or carrots tossed underneath the benches. Worst, the students allow themselves to be blind to such nasty messes Such irresponsibility disappoints members of the Local Leaders Club and the Green Team who have worked tirelessly with the school district to bring more waste bins on campus for landfill, recycling and compost to make it convenient for students to properly dispense their trash. Still, Green Team student member, Esha Patel(’21) has high hopes for Amador’s environmental goals: “As a club and a team, we are trying to implement creative ways to motivate Amador students to be more responsible of their food waste after lunch. By making it easier for them to throw their trash away and providing them with the tools they need to be more environmentally sustainable, we look forward to seeing a positive change on Amador’s campus!” Jessica Luan(’20), president of Local Leaders club hope “Amador students could learn to properly sort their waste and become mindful about where our waste goes and what we can do at the individual level to protect the environment”. In the meantime, Vice Principle Mr. Guereña, also part of the Green Team, regularly comes around lunch tables reminding students to pick up after themselves. Amador students must change their habits. Everyday, when students leave the tables, our janitors climb over not just the table areas but ALSO every hallway and every corner of the school just to collect our lunch-waste. But this is NOT part of their responsibility. I believe many students who care about maintaining a clean study environment for their fellow classmates and themselves do find such littering mind-boggling. Consequently, we interviewed Daylnn Miller(’21), a junior who can often be seen throwing away other students’ trash. Daylnn tells me, “I really like the janitors here, I think they’re all really nice people. And I think that it’s kind of disrespectful and it looks kind of bad when everyone leaves all their trash, and so I don’t want them to have to deal with our gross food. I think it takes 15 seconds to take your trash from your table to your nearest trash can, and if nobody throws away their trash, then so much work is put on the janitors. But if everyone just took that extra 15 seconds, it would be so much easier because we have a big school, and the janitors do a lot, they have to clean up after us everywhere, and so it would just make it easier on them to not have to babysit us”.
If we genuinely care about the environment and believe in the power of our action and in the value of our voices, should we not do the basics of taking care of our own trash after we leave a space? True, strikes, walk-outs, and marches bring visibility, but if we are unable to follow through those very principles we shout out of protecting planet Earth, who will take us seriously? Let us not be hypocrites. Let us reassess our own actions and then remind our friends, too, to throw away their trash.
We all love our campus, its physical beauty and hard working, earnest culture; we all believe in the good in everyone and appreciate one another for the work they do. Should we not, then, make an earnest effort to not increase burden for our janitors? Let us enjoy sitting out in the open sunshine, on grass, on bleachers, in hallways, and behind school buildings, but let us not leave trash all across campus!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
The journalism small group is so productive, and it actually feels like you are doing something. You have so many opportunities to collaborate with people you probably would not have met otherwise. I have made so many friends in this small group, and club meetings are always entertaining.
- Bavana Pydipati, Journalism Writers Head '24 Author:Local Leaders of the 21st Century Club Categories
All
Archives
March 2021
|