Hear that? It’s the high pitched chorus of the student section as the final touchdown is scored. It’s the infamous “Rustle Hustle” that you can’t avoid joining in on. It’s those seconds of a game where everyone’s holding their breath, leaning forward, hanging on to the edge of their seat because it’s just that close.

However, once the game is over, the final buzzer has sounded, the clock has ticked down and everyone has left, what remains is anything less than that “Rustler Pride” we as a school are so fond of. Soda bottles, empty wrappers, and nacho cheese are just a few of the things that litter the stands, and we at The Stampede think that all of us, as Rustlers, should know better.

This is our school. This is the place where we learn, where we better ourselves and create our futures. A lot of us spend more time here than we do at home. And yet some of us feel the need to treat our school, our second home, as a personal garbage can. So we, at The Stampede, would like to ask you a question. Would you treat your own home like that? Sure, there are the few of you who say that there’s no correlation between your home and your school, but that’s where you’re wrong.

Pride is pride. Whether it’s “Rustler Pride,” “Proud to be an American,” or being proud of where you live, it’s all the same. Pride is looking at something and saying that it’s yours and you take care of it. This isn’t the first time we as a school have been in this predicament. About a decade ago, lunches were cut from 40 minutes to 30 minutes because students couldn’t pick up a few pieces of trash and do some civil good.

More recently, however, the library staff has been debating whether or not to close its doors during the lunch periods because of the trash left behind by students. It’s not only the lack of pride that shows in these simple actions, but a lack of consideration as well. When students leave their trash behind, who is supposed to clean it up? The custodians? Because it’s “their job?” Wrong. It’s you. The custodians do more than their fair share keeping our school nice and clean.

We at the Stampede think they deserve a huge round of applause for the amount of work they do cleaning our classrooms, shoveling the snow, and all of the time they put into keeping our school clean for us so we can learn. Next time you think about leaving your trash behind or when you watch someone else leave theirs, just pick it up. We at The Stampede will thank you.