By Brian Ishisaka, Staff writer
Trash, trash, trash. You see it, you smell it, you occasionally feel it. Yes, it’s no mystery that behind McClatchy’s exquisite and elegant entrance lays a campus not as sparkling, shiny, and clean. With budgets in effect, CKM has taken a toll by having less janitors, and therefore having a dirtier campus. No one is at fault here; it’s just the economy that we live in. But honestly, it’s still incredibly disgusting! Do you like walking around campus, looking at gum-stained floors, black-tinted walls, and musty smelling hallways? I DEFINITELY DON’T! You can’t even walk around anymore with a new pair of all white Chuck Taylors, Vans, or crisp Air Force One’s without them turning a different, filthy color by the end of the day.
Just the other day I saw a janitor cleaning the floors with a steam cleaner before zero period. By the end of the day, the entire floor was covered in mud, dirt, and grease. The janitor worked so hard to make that floor clean and within a span of 7 hours, it was a complete mess. CKM needs a new system of cleaning, because this is flat out unacceptable.
Especially during the winter time, when cold season is in full effect ,it could take a CKM student a few weeks to get symptom free because of all the nasty filth and germs in the air, while most teenagers can get over a common cold in a few days,.Hygienically, CKM is equivalent to a dump. Have you recently checked out the portable bathrooms near the football field? I advise you not to go in there anytime soon, unless you want to risk your health and sanitation. It’s disgusting to see all the flies and maggots roaming around, the smell alone is horrific.
Additionally, what’s the point of trash cans at school, if kids don’t even use them? I walk around the science quad and lunch quad almost everyday, just to see kids throwing rubbish on the ground when a large trash bin is within arm’s reach. That brings me to my next point leaving food on the ground attracts what? That’s right, it attracts critters. I can’t even count the number of times I have seen rats running around the bushes or dashing across the science quad in search of the leftover food that our wonderful students have left behind. It’s disgusting to just have food lying on the ground, but the fact that there are rodents roaming freely on our campus is even morenasty!
Starving school kids can’t even eat in classes anymore because teaches are scared of messy eaters and crumbs falling on the floor. How are we to learn on starving stomachs? The school is so filthy now that we students can’t even feed themselves, which is ultimately affecting the way they learn.
Additionally, all I hear from teachers is how much they complain and complain and complain about having to clean their own floors and their whole rooms in general. But instead of complaining so much, why don’t they just suck it up like we do and clean the damn floors, or take it to the administration. Realistically, there are only a handful of teachers that take the time to clean their floors and care about the well being of the school and students. Students don’t even feel safe and clean at our school because of the filth. Kennedy Wilson (‘16), said, “I feel like I can’t even put my backpack on the floor without catching a million diseases.” CKM needs to seriously clean up the campus. Maybe rent a giant garbage bin for a day, and every period one representative from each class takes their respective trash can to be emptied into the giant one. Even a school wide clean up would help. All in all, the janitorial staff does all that they can in the time that they have to clean the campus, yet when it comes down to it, our school remains filthy and quite honestly it’s unacceptable. It’s up to the students and staff to make this campus the beautiful and remarkable place that it once was.