Keep the campus clean together

BY MATTHEW CAESAR Staff Reporter

The first to arrive is Fine Lauese, Sequoia’s plant manager, at 5:00 a.m., followed by the first crew of custodians at 6:00 a.m.. This crew will work tirelessly to sweep, pick up garbage, and fix any issues that come up during the school day for eight hours, leaving at 3:00 p.m.. Next, the night crew will work from 3:30 to 11:00 p.m. cleaning the halls, classrooms, and restrooms to prepare for the next day. Every day, Sequoia’s custodians arrive at the school before us and leave after, working day in and day out to keep our school clean.

Of all areas in the school, the bathrooms are consistently some of the most time consuming parts of the buildings to clean for the custodial staff.

In boy’s bathrooms specifically, there have been many issues with accommodations being broken or stolen.

“It’s a lot because we’re constantly replacing toilet seats, paper dispensers, right? In the guys bathroom, there’s no more mirrors,” Lauese said. “The bad part about not taking care of the facilities is that now, you know, you’ve got to go somewhere else.”

Littering has been a substantial issue for the custodial staff, especially in harder to clean areas of Sequoia’s campus. For example, cleaning the stairs is a bit more difficult than normal floors.

“I have stairs, and I don’t like them to eat on my stairs, because they leave all their food paper and stuff like that, you know, drop food on the stairs,” custodian Alyee Spurell said.

Also, spills being left on the ground unattended can cause harm to people walking around.

“If you spill something, let somebody know you don’t have to clean it up. Just let somebody know because it becomes a safety issue,” Lauese said.

Trash being carelessly disposed of can also cause problems for the school’s custodians.

“Also, if a student can put the garbage where it belongs, instead of [throwing it] and trying to aim at the basket, it’s very helpful,” custodian Pastor Guzman said.

It is also important to keep in mind the difference between trash and recycling when disposing of garbage.

“And also if they can distinguish between the garbage and the recycling bin, it will be very helpful. Not only to us, but the environment.” Guzman said, “Because when we pick up garbage, we don’t sort it. If it’s in the trash it’s [disposed of as] trash, if it’s in the recycling bin, it’s recycled.”

When in the classrooms, supplies being left where they don’t belong is a common issue.

“It seems to be like the more that the teacher gives the student the more we find on the floor, and we don’t have the time to be picking them up and putting them where they belong,” Guzman said. “I think the students and the teacher should be conscious of putting everything in its place before class ends.”

Despite difficulties, generally, most students are considerate of the school’s custodial staff.

“I feel like they are. They are. It goes back to our trash situation: it’s just a handful of kids that, again, are uneducated,” Lauese said, “[it’s just] the awareness, the decency to understand that there’s people that come in after you.”

Left : my parents, Aneesh and Kathleen, and my sister Fiona, half Indian half white

Top Right : Jada Crockett and her siblings Jordan and Maya, half Mexican half Black

Bottom Right : Joyana Saha and her parents Kathryn and Bijoy, half Benglai half white