The School Newspaper of Lawrence High School.

The Budget

The School Newspaper of Lawrence High School.

The Budget

The School Newspaper of Lawrence High School.

The Budget

School leaves lunchroom trashed

The lunchroom has seen nearly 60 years of students passing through the lunch-lines and eating at tables, but the problem of students leaving behind trash and trays is a relatively new one to janitor Dean Alt.

“I’ve been here for eight years, and it hasn’t been this bad before,” Alt said.

It’s also an issue for security guards, who are responsible for making sure the school is safe and enforcing rules. That includes the rule displayed on TVs during every lunch block telling students to be responsible for their trash and trays.

“I think that high school teenagers should be responsible enough to put away their trash and trays,” security guard Armond Enclarde said. “When they come into the cafeteria there is nothing on those tables. When they leave, there’s napkins and trays.”

But it is difficult to enforce the rules, Enclarde said.

“Students are sitting there, and they’re watching us,” Enclarde said. “And they’re waiting for us to be distracted by another student or to turn our backs to move around somewhere so that they can get up and walk away.”

Although perpetrators are difficult to catch, security guards do make some progress toward catching students

“As a team, we may catch between six and 10 [students per week],” Enclarde said.

Still, the problem hasn’t gotten any better. In fact, it is getting worse, according to Alt and Enclarde.

“I think at the beginning of the year, it was really good,” Enclarde said. “You know, students are not as eager to get in trouble. They’re kind of testing the waters and seeing what they can and cannot get away with.”

Students trash other areas of the school, too. Although signs state “Food and drinks in the cafeteria only,” students continue to eat around the school and they take food back to classrooms after lunch.             The issue with students taking food outside of the lunchroom is because of what they leave around the school, trash.

“Often times, if they would take their trash and throw it away and not leave it out around the school that wouldn’t be a problem at all, but until they’re responsible enough to do that we’ll pretty much run them back into the cafeteria,” Enclarde said.

Eating in the park is also an issue for the school. Both what the students take with them and what they leave them behind is a problem.

“They take [their lunch] out to the park,” Alt said. “[The janitors] find trays out there over the weekend — stacks of them.”

But they still believe they can make a difference.

“We’re doing small things to encourage it, but it’s going to take a broader approach,” Enclarde said.

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