Responsibility is a basic trait that is instilled in us as children. Our parents constantly told us to pick up our toys, to stay clean, to stay organized. Indeed, responsibility is an important trait, that we carry with us throughout our lives and everywhere we go. As students and young adults, being responsible is important and it mainly reflects at school. In this case, keeping the school campus clean plays a major role when it comes to responsibility.

Keeping the school clean has always been a major issue, especially after lunch. Many students don’t pick up after themselves. I’ve seen trash under the lockers, drinks spilled on the floor and boxes of leftover food in the hallways. In my opinion lack of responsibility plays a major role in this situation.

Most of our students rely on the janitors to pick up their trash. This might be due to the fact that they have someone at home who cleans up after them. Most teenagers are used to their mom’s picking up after themselves. Most teens depend on their mom to keep things organized. Sadly, this makes young adults lazy. Lazy to do things for themselves. Which highly reflects outside the household. For example, here at school. Many come with the mindset that someone else has to clean up after them. Their argument is that “It’s the janitor’s job and that’s why they get paid.” Which is mostly true, a janitor’s job is to sweep, mop, empty the trash cans, and make adjustments and minor repairs. With that said, a janitor’s job it’s not to follow students around with a trash can. They deserve respect just like the teachers and principal.

The school has already tried to solve this issue before by promoting PBIS and Trojan Traits, which have worked poorly. PBIS stands for positive behavior, intervention and support. Many of our students are not keeping a positive attitude, they’ve continue to go with the flow and keep littering the school. Also, students are not supporting the school staff, they are not helping maintain the school which creates more work for janitors and teachers. Students are also not practicing intervention. There’s no action taken to improve the school and to have a cleaner campus. Indeed, its poor effect reflects on the school. This is important because the environment in which we study reflects on our education and lack of cleanliness reflects on the students.

In fact, lack of cleanliness can be a distraction. Instead of our students concentrating on the teacher, they are more focused on the poor indoor air quality, dirty desks, and trash. Aside from that, lack of cleanliness can impact our health. The accumulation of dirt and dust can trigger allergies and increase the spread of germs.

Most importantly, it can promote high stress levels. Clutter makes it more difficult to relax both physically and mentally. It signals to our brains that work is not done which can make us anxious because we begin to feel like work keeps piling up. Clutter also distracts us from things the need to be done and it can cause frustration to not know where to start. Which is something students do not need. Students don’t need more weight on their shoulders. We already have six different classes to stress about. We also have clubs, sports and community service that goes on after school.

Luckily, there are many ways we can solve this issue. First, we can start by just being responsible and picking up after ourselves. We can continue at home by practicing cleanliness. We can help more with chores and learn how to be more organized. In addition, we can remind and help our friends to pick up after themselves and the importance of a clean campus. Finally, we can make posters and place them around the campus as a friendly reminder.

By doing these things we can make a difference in our school that will make us feel good. We would also save money which would benefit us the students. The school would invest less on pest control and maintenance. The money that is save can benefit us, we can buy new books for the library, new computers, or we can also use that money to better our school.

Being responsible and picking up after yourself is important to me because I consider myself to be a clean and organized person. Also, because I want my learning environment to be a stress-free zone. A place where I can feel confident about myself and my surroundings.

Some students argue that it doesn’t matter if we pick up after ourselves because not everyone is going to do it. I think that if we begin to clean up our area after lunch it will make a difference because we would no longer be contributing to the problem which is the garbage left after lunch.

In fact, this issue expands throughout the day. In the mornings many students eat their breakfast in class and I completely understand because I do it too. But reality check – a rushed morning is not an excuse to throw our food wrappers on the floor or leave them on the side of our desk.

Not only that, but others end up paying for the consequences, accidents happen like spilling orange juice and coffee on the desks. In effect to that, an unlucky student has to sit in a sticky seat just because someone else wasn’t responsible enough to clean up after themselves.

If we take a look at the big picture we can see that the trash is not the only problem that comes from lack of responsibility, teachers begin to lose trust in students. Lately I’ve seen signs that say “No Cheetos” and “No food or drinks allowed.” This is a privilege that’s taken away from everyone because certain students don’t pick up after themselves.

Do we really need someone to remind us of a simple thing such as picking up after ourselves? Do we really need janitors and teachers following us with trash cans in order to keep the school maintained? Do we need privileges taken away? We don’t need to make it harder for ourselves. We can simply be responsible and pick up after ourselves.