By Jake Lawson

A couple weeks ago, I walked into the student lounge after school to get some chips. Not only was I met with squished broccoli under my feet, I also noticed the large amount of trash surrounding me. There was trash on the tables, near the microwaves, on the couches, and even some just tossed into the far left corner.

Then, and only then, did I realize why Stacy has constantly been talking about trash on campus. Since then, I have noticed other acts of literal “trash”ing of the campus, such as the Random Acts of Kindness club handing out free hot chocolate and people tossing their packets all over the table, leaving them for the members of the club to pick up after them.

No matter how you choose to think about it, trash will never be a good thing. Trash goes in trash bins. Trash does not go on tables, under chairs, in the air, among plants or on the ground. There is no argument against the fact that the best place for trash is, in fact, in a trash or recycling bin.

With that in mind, it’s hard to say that there isn’t a “trash problem” at our school. Everyone’s heard Stacy talk about it, most choose to ignore it, and the number of people who not only throw away their own trash, but pick up the trash behind others, is a very small number to say the least.

But the fact is that, while there will always be trash wherever we go in the world, no one should have to walk into the student lounge, a privilege that most schools don’t even have, and step on food that has been left on the ground. While the majority of people may be mostly unaffected by the trash on campus, and most people seem to not care, the purpose of this is more to say that there are people who are affected by the trash on campus, myself included, and to remind people that their trash really doesn’t belong on the ground.

However, if every single student and faculty member was of the mindset that trash is not their personal responsibility, then we would likely be going to school with a layer of trash at our feet every single day.

I spoke with a few people who actually do believe trash is a problem at school. My interview with junior Violet Cole was all I needed to demonstrate that students, as well as faculty, believe that trash is, in fact, a problem.

“Trash sucks,” said Violet. “It’s definitely an issue at our school, whether people choose to say so or not. Whenever I walk around campus, I always see little things on the ground. Always. Also, there’s honestly no question about trash being an issue because if there isn’t any trash on the ground, there’s no problem and no more debate. People who don’t think trash is a problem are the problem, because they’re obviously not looking down when they walk around and seeing it all over the ground.”