I personally think being thankful is a very important thing. I try to be thankful when I can by saying “thank you” to the lunch lady who is washing dishes or thanking teachers who help me with homework. I feel like most people are good at being thankful for those things, but I also feel like there are people who don’t get enough credit.

Looking around the school, people don’t seem to notice how clean the school is because it’s something they just expect, but a lot of work goes into cleaning the school. It can get time-consuming and tiring with how long it takes, especially if nobody seems to notice all the work that was just put in.

“We’re usually told on a daily basis by teachers and other staff members that they really appreciate us for the job we do, but as far as the kids, they don’t ever tell us that,” Melinda Reed, custodian, said. 

It can be especially difficult to keep the school clean when people purposely make messes. They throw food at lunch, write on the walls in the bathroom, and throw trash around during class. Students don’t realize that whenever they clog the toilet as a joke or write on the walls that the custodians are the ones who have to clean up their mess.

“When they purposefully make messes it really doesn’t feel good because it’s over and over and over all the time, the same things like going into the boy’s bathroom and finding door stops in the toilet that have been urinated on or stuffing deodorant bottles down the toilet and taking a BM on em’ and then flushing it and getting it wedged up in there. That makes us feel really bad because y’know we take pride in what we do and try to make the school look nice for the kids. It makes us feel like they don’t appreciate it,” Reed said. 

I’m sure it not only gets difficult but gets frustrating and tiring because not only do the custodians here get underappreciated but people make it so hard for them. Some students act like they do not have a life outside of cleaning and it is so frustrating because I’m positive the last thing anyone wants to do is not be able to go home on Friday because some students decided to clog the toilet.

I would like to personally thank Melinda Reed and Duane Coffey for everything they have done for this school. Both of their hard work has provided a clean, hygienic environment for us for years, and I don’t think it should go unnoticed.