A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking with Alliance High School janitor, Mr. Nunez, in the entrance of the commons. Whenever I see him, I usually say a quick hello and continue on with my day, but this time, I stopped and held a short conversation with him. I asked how his day was going and he told me good, except for his lunch had been moved back, due to one reason or another and this sparked one question in my mind. Do we truly appreciate the work our custodians do for our school?

Just the other day, I witnessed a group of fellow classmates trying to make “shooters” and completely miss the trashcan. They just laughed it off and left their trash for the janitors to clean up. Our custodians are not your maids and they are not your mothers. They should not have to ask for you to clean up after you. Ms. Roxie Smith said, “I have watched these janitors work in the summers and after school.” These people spend more time in the school than we do. She also said “When we have 550 people using one facility for bathrooms, drinks and the like, we are very blessed to have these people. The school could not function without them.”

All day long, we see our custodians bouncing from place to place, across the building, nonstop cleaning. We hear them called to the office, only to be given another chore added on to their already lengthy list. I once observed one of our custodians sit at one part of a lunch table for an entire class period, scraping all of the gum off of the bottom. Would you like to scrape someone else’s germs off of the bottom of a lunch table for almost an hour? What makes you think they enjoy doing it? How hard is it to get up and spit your gum into the garbage can? As far as I’m concerned, it takes more work to stick gum onto the bottom of the table, than it does to walk two feet to the trash can and spit it out.

Now the question is, what can we do to help? I asked a few of our teachers, here at Alliance High, the same thing. Mrs. Vicki Joule said, “We are going to start a wash the tables and counters campaign, in class, to get everyone thinking about their workspace.” Mr. Derrick Wells said, “ If they make sure to keep themselves and their areas clean and tidy and/or pick up anything that they drop, then the problem will eliminate itself. But everybody needs to do their part.”

To some, helping out may sound like torture. I’m not innocent in this. I too, moan and groan when my eighth period teacher asks me to put my chair on the desk or when I’m asked to pick up a scrap of paper that “wasn’t even mine”. But even those little things make the jobs of our custodians, that much easier. Picking up those scraps of paper next to you, shortens the amount of time it would take them to vacuum the classroom. Putting your chair up on the desk at the end of the day, makes cleaning just that much easier for them.

We take the work the custodial staff does for granted. If everyone took the initiative to keep the school even a tad cleaner, then we could greatly help the custodians here. Much of our custodial staff comes to work, when the school day is nearly over and will not go home until later that night. Miss Kaiya West stated, “For me, the frustrating thing is to hear many students say ‘Well, that’s what they get paid to do. If I pick this up, then what would they do?’ The truth is they have plenty to do.” I agree, wholeheartedly. During our school day, Mr. Nunez is the only janitor on duty and he is given a ton of various chores around the school. For example, after lunch, some kids leave their lunch trays at their tables and their trash is strewn all around the Commons. This frustrates me, so I can’t even begin to imagine how frustrating it is for Mr. Nunez.

I asked Mr. Nunez what would we could do to help out. He replied with, ”If students could go around and pick up trash they see, on top of the tables or the floor. It’d be a great help.” I also asked, Mr. Luke Shroyer and he said, “Show them the respect they deserve by not leaving trays filled with half eaten meals, not littering, not drawing on desks. The list goes on and on. Actions speak louder than words. Show your custodians gratitude by cleaning up after yourself. The more we do this, the less time our custodial staff have to spend working away from their family and loved ones.”

Our custodial staff is amazing and this school would be a disaster without them. Our custodial staff has to work holidays, such as Christmas Eve, due to the tournaments and other activities, without complaining. They just get the job done. If we do, even the smallest of things, it’d make their job much easier and they’d be able to complete their jobs much quicker, so they could go home when they’re scheduled.