With two custodians gone, it’s time for the students to start taking responsibility.

Students are now to be held accountable for their messes left in school.

This school year, we have lost two custodians. One of them, Wanda French, finished her last day on Oct. 23. The other, Scott Minzenberger is currently out sick with no return anytime soon. This puts the other two custodians of the school at a disadvantage. The work was difficult and time-consuming enough with four, now that they have lost half of their manpower, the work becomes more and more overwhelming.

The most challenging part will be the classrooms. The garbage will be taken out daily as well as the cafeteria and bathrooms will also be cleaned daily. Classrooms will be cleaned once or twice a week, therefore students need to keep from piling up trash on the floors of the rooms.

Administrator Cynthia Bell believes that students should make an effort to help clean the school up. “People start to feel like it’s someone else’s job to clean up after them and that’s not the case,” said Bell.

The solution is easy, but unfortunately, many people nowadays have a “what’s in it for me?” type of attitude. For lunches that are clean after their lunch time, that lunch receives a point. Whichever lunch reaches the most points will receive ice cream for the entire lunch. For instance, if second lunch receives the most points, the entire lunch will receive ice cream.

For the students who individually clean up, there is no other incentive other than one a teacher may give you. Pam Swift, the French and German teacher, gives Charger Bucks to the students who come in and take out the garbage for the custodians. “I offer Charger Bucks as little extra credit vouchers for the students,” said Swift.

It’s not difficult for students to take some responsibility for themselves and their own messes. “At the end of class, just look around and see if there is anything that you can pick up and throw away,” said Bell. It’s a simple matter of picking up what is around them, not coming in and sweeping after school.

It’s a matter of personal pride. Students most likely spend more time at school than time at home. Leaving the classroom filthy and disgusting is by their own choice and can impede upon learning throughout the class. “I would think that most people would want to take pride in doing things the right way, in doing things the Charger way,” said Bell.

So, students, this message goes out to all of you. It’s not hard to take responsibility and pick up after yourself. It merely takes 30 seconds to look around your desk and see what you should pick up. Try to help out the people who help you daily.