Custodians are very important to our school. By definition, custodians are people who have responsibility for or look after something. As a community, we collectively need to show more appreciation to our custodians. They deserve more love and gratitude for the people that they are. I think that custodians are overlooked in school, and we do not realize just how much they do for us. 

Custodians are responsible for keeping our school and environment clean. They have to pick up after students who don’t pick up after themselves. Their jobs require them to stay for many hours after school and events. 

I would say custodians are overlooked because people don’t really thank them and they just say, “That’s their job, so I’m not picking up my trash.” or “The custodians will just get it.” People purposely leave their garbage around, they don’t clean up spills, and there are even students who draw on teacher’s equipment. These acts are not only disrespectful to custodians, but to the school also. Custodians highly represent our school because what they do for us gives people their first impression of the school. It’s a part of their job to make sure our school looks clean and professional. 

A lot of people aren’t aware of the actual things custodians do for us. Here are some specific examples of tasks you may find a custodian doing for the school. You will find many custodians here after school vacuuming all of the classrooms and hallways. Typically, towards the end of the school day, you will notice custodians are starting to clean up the restrooms. It’s one of their responsibilities to make sure they clean the toilets and trash out of the bathroom, they make sure the toilet paper and paper towel is filled, and they have to make sure our mirrors and sinks are clean. The custodians, and lunch ladies, make sure that the cafeteria is all cleaned up and back to normal, for study hall is hosted in the small lecture hall after lunch. Custodians are the people who are called to clean up student accidents, usually vomit. They pick up the classrooms after a long school day. Custodians and janitors are some of the last people here after school. 

We need to work together to show our custodian staff more love and appreciation. If their jobs are so easy, why can’t we pick up our own trash, or clean up our spills? Next time you choose to laugh at or make fun of a custodian, reflect on just how much they truly do for us. They show that they care about us and our school, so let’s do a better job at showing them how appreciative and thankful we are for them. This could look like a simple “Thank you.”, or we can even just clean up our own messes.