While waiting at school to watch the GDS theater production of The Crucible, my friends and I were eating food in the Forum when we saw a mouse scurry across the couches in the junior section. This was not the first time I had seen a mouse in the Forum this year. This, in part, is due to the food and trash that are carelessly left in the area.
When the school opens at 6:00 a.m., the Forum is clean, but as the day progresses, wrappers, drink spills and food decorate the space. By 6:00 p.m. the Forum looks vastly different from its state only 12 hours before.
Six out of eight students interviewed described the Forum as messy. While the Forum as a whole is left dirty, the areas with the most trash are the 9th- and 10th-grade sections.
The majority of freshmen come to the high school from the GDS lower-middle school, where they didn’t have a common space like the Forum to keep clean. “Freshmen are still adapting to things,” Director of Facilities and Maintenance Khalid Daniels said. “Seniors and juniors probably know what’s expected a bit more.”
“Well, the freshmen are messy in general,” junior Bobby Bulman said. “We were the same. You learn as you grow.”
Sophomore Zora Dimbo said she believes that all high schoolers have the same responsibility to keep the Forum clean, no matter our grade. “We are not in elementary school anymore,” Dimbo said.
Before winter break, due to the increase in trash left in the Forum in December, 10th Grade Dean Greg Dallinger sent an email to the 10th-grade with photos of the Forum after the school day. His message was to remind students to clean up after themselves as a form of respect to their peers and the cleaning staff. The email was followed up by both the 9th- and 10th-grade deans telling their respective grades to keep the Forum cleaner during the last class meetings of 2024.
Sophomore Jana Abdel-Gawad said the Forum is very dirty, and students need to clean up after themselves. “I saw a sandwich on the floor and the lettuce, tomato and cheese were all separated across the floor. It was kind of disgusting,” Abdel-Gawad said.
I often stay after school until at least 5:00 p.m., and frequently, I see people eat their snacks and get up to leave, completely disregarding the small mess they’ve made. I will then throw away their trash while the cleaning staff starts cleaning up the rest of my peers’ food.
“They are a really important part of the community, but they are not visible because they are here when a lot of people are out of the building,” Dallinger said of the cleaning staff. “If I see an empty can of Coke, I can pick it up and wash my hands and now it’s better for everyone else. The same way that a bunch of small negative choices can add up to make the situation worse, a bunch of small positive choices can make the situation a lot better.”
By leaving trash that can easily be picked up in the Forum, GDS students are disrespecting not only their peers who spend time in the space but also the amazing cleaning staff that dedicates their time to make sure the school is sanitary. It is not their job to pick up the wrappers that students carelessly left.
The negligence shown by high school students who make the Forum messy highlights the privileges that GDS students have. “If they have enough money to buy all the snacks that they are buying, then they should be able to clean it all up,” freshman Evy Gilroy said.
Even the students who might not leave their trash but also don’t do anything to help are a part of the problem. Students, if you see someone leave out food, don’t be afraid to call them out in a polite way. If you didn’t see the person who left the mess, pick it up yourself.