Have you ever considered who keeps the school clean? More specifically, who keeps the toilet facilities in this building in working and sanitary condition? I could only imagine how disgusting it would be if nobody ever cleaned those, or if nobody ever mopped up the Commons floor after all the lunch periods of the day.
These people are almost invisible to most of us during the regular school day. But if you pop into the school anytime between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m., you will see them cleaning, vacuuming and picking up the trash we’ve somehow forgotten on the floor and other tasks. It’s like that story about the cobbler elves that come out in the middle of the night to fix shoes, except they’re doing it for ungrateful children.
Honestly, when was the last time you considered who was going to clean up that gum that you left under the table, or stuck to the carpet? If whoever had been chomping on that particular piece of gum had just walked two meters over to the trash can, it could all have been avoided.
We on the newspaper staff are often here for a bit longer than our readers. We work until about nine during our late nights to finish your newest issue of the Viking Views. During these late nights I’ve seen the janitorial staff hard at work, running humongous, industrial vacuum cleaners and mopping the floor in the Commons. I’m quite sure this is only some of their duties. They have to do those unmentionable bathroom jobs too. Cleaning the bathroom at my house is a pretty disgusting chore; I can only imagine how much worse it is to have to clean bathrooms used by more than 1,000 students, and that’s not counting the staff and visitors.
There was one occasion when I was going to the bathroom by the band and choir hallway to change. Upon entering I discovered that someone had done something that was beyond inconsiderate. They probably thought it was unbelievably hilarious. I won’t say what it was specifically, but let’s just say that some idiot had forgotten why there are toilets in addition to urinals in the guys’ bathroom. Come on, Mr. I-Don’t-Need-to-Use-Toilets, think about who is going to have to clean that up.
What I’m trying to get at here is that we need to take that extra effort to be considerate. That means not being selfish and thinking of others. If the issue is convenience and you don’t want to walk that extra two meters to a trashcan to throw your garbage away, then think about what the janitor, who has to be here for hours after we all go home, has to do in addition to his (or her) job. They aren’t your mothers; they’re not here to pick up after your trash.
I’d like to pose a hypothetical situation, where our school didn’t have such a dedicated janitorial staff. Our hallways would be filthy. Old papers, candy wrappers and who knows what else would be scattered everywhere. Our bathrooms would stink to high heaven and using the bathroom would be something only the most desperate would do.
Let me be the first to say: Thank you, Hoover’s janitorial staff, for everything that you do for us. Whether it’s mopping up someone’s spilled slushie or scraping gum off the underside of a desk, I know it’s a thankless job that you all do. So, thank you. And, for those of my peers who are thinking, “Blake Tan is such a suck-up,” this is not so the janitors will make sure the area around my locker is spotless clean. It’s a simple word of thanks to our school’s unsung heroes.