On Sept 19, I walked into my third period class, sat down and waited for the daily announcements. The announcements, along with many other topics and reminders, told students to start cleaning their trash up in the CMR, Sam’s Club, Burger King, and Wendy’s parking lots. Despite having numerous trash cans and dumpsters on the way into school and out of the Sam’s Club parking lots, students remain inconsiderate and leave their trash in parking lots and on roads.
CMR students even have been driving to a fast food restaurant and getting back to the CMR parking lot, eating in their car and leaving their trash outside their car on the ground. I and many others have seen piles of trash in the student parking lot.
“It appeared that some students didn’t have respect for their school,” one parent who wished to remain anonymous said. As Rustlers, we should show respect for our school. Respect isn’t just being kind to one another; it’s also cleaning up and taking care of CMR grounds. The topic of respect is incorporated in Rustler standards and values. So why not be a real Rustler and clean up your trash? People, especially parents, shouldn’t feel like we don’t respect our school. Not only does all this litter show an apathetic attitude to our school, but it also creates more work for janitors and custodians and any individual who has to pick up the trash.
“With that many students, picking up after each one is a tough job, like the person that does have to clean it up already has to clean the school and stores. Why should they have to pick up the parking lot too,” the parent added. Can you imagine being the person who has to not only pick up inside CMR but now the trash in the parking lots? Or being the person at Sam’s Club who picks all that trash up, because students can’t take time and throw their trash away. Students’ garbage also can hurt the birds and animals who ingest it.
“When swallowed by animals, this rubbish causes a lot of damage. Plastics can poke holes in the digestive tract and cause ulcers and infections, or mimic hormones and interfere with the endocrine system. Seabirds with a belly-full of garbage sometimes starve or suffocate. Plastics also tend to absorb other toxic chemicals, causing poisonous substances to build up in animals’ bodies,” Kate Baggalay wrote in and article titled “Seagulls Are Eating All of Our Garbage.” in the January 2018 issue of Popular Science.
I saw a lot of seagulls eating the trash in the parking lots and dragging it around. This is not good for the seagulls or other birds. All this garbage and litter that’s being left around can poison and kill these unsuspecting animals.
In the end, it’s really not difficult to show respect for janitors, our school, our community, and the animals by just throwing your trash in one of the trash bins. Please be mindful and respectful and don’t litter.
