It is known that a big factor in the spread of illness around school is the overall cleanliness of the school, along with students’ personal hygiene. With SPASH having a vast amount of students, 1,488 students to be exact there are higher chances of more trash and/or messes around the school. That factor already makes it more inevitable for the spread of germs/illness, so being on top of cleanliness and all is even more important. It’ll be shown what some students think about the school strictly based on it’s cleanliness, through a survey I conducted receiving results from 39 SPASH students. Following with a deeper insight on the commons and more in depth details from the eyes of students in my interviews with Seniors, Natalie and Kenadee. We are needing to keep our school clean, to help with preventing the spread of germs and illnesses.

Starting off with an important topic from the 39 student survey, the cleanliness of the bathrooms. Specifically the stalls not being the cleanest and toilets being clogged from not being flushed, along with other things. As one SPASH student stated on the survey, “The school bathrooms here are literally disgusting and there’s nothing we can change about that cause the anonymous students here are immature.” I feel like the comment about immature students is referring to the times people emptied all the toilet paper and put it in the toilets. Things like this are so easy to fix, with the results from the survey it proves that students don’t like the overall cleanliness, although it almost all depends on us, the students. Going off that, in my interview with Kenadee she mentioned the importance of having clean bathrooms, mostly to our health. Stating that the bathrooms can be the dirtiest place in the school at times and how bathroom hygiene is important to prevent the spread of illness. Bathroom hygiene includes the basics of needing to wash our hands after every bathroom use, along with the overall cleanliness of the bathrooms.With hand dryers being pretty unsanitary, there should be an option for paper towels in every bathroom and/or hand sanitizer to really stay on top of things. 

Continuing, with the discussion of the North and South commons. The issue of the North and South commons is what brought me to think of the cleanliness of the school. From seeing crumbs, wrappers, and sometimes trash and syrup on the table I’d use in the commons. Focusing on the hours before, during and after the lunches, to prove that students really are the biggest factor in whether or not they stay clean. From my survey of 39 SPASH students, A total of 28 say either yes or sometimes, the common tables are dirty during lunch hours. Now, during lunch hours  it’s inevitable to have some messiness, but that should be almost gone when the students leave the table at the end of lunch. Next, when talking with SPASH senior Kenadee she stated that the hour before the first lunch, the trash is being changed out to be empty for the upcoming lunches. Along with an overview of the common tables looking very tidy, all looking clear, no trash, wrappers, etc. Concluding that, It proves the issue of the common tables being dirty with trash, wrappers,etc. is not a lack on the custodians part but on the students part for not throwing their trash away. 

Throughout my research, It has become clear how everything plays into the cleanliness of our school. It has shown me that our school is already equipped with resources to help keep it tidy throughout the day. Natalie, a SPASH senior and I talked about the trash cans in SPASH and it was discussed how there are a great amount of trash cans around the school. They are upstairs,in both commons and throughout the hallways downstairs and in every classroom and bathroom. Showing that students should be able to find a place to throw their trash, keeping the school litter free. The other resource we already have are sanitizer dispensers or bottles in some places. There are some located in the hallways and some sort of sanitizer in every classroom, which is helpful. By having access to sanitizer at any time, it can really help with preventing sickness, transferring germs and overall cleanliness of SPASH. 

To clean all this up, This research and evidence is showing the importance of cleanliness throughout our school, for our good health. The readers, students specifically should realize that the cleanliness of our school is heavily dependent on us, in terms of just picking up our trash, not leaving it around and practicing good hygiene with always washing hands and using hand sanitizer if wanted. It is worth mentioning the response a student put into the survey, which is to provide wipes for the commons tables or for any use. This would be awesome, just not as easily attainable. Us students would be the fastest and most effective solution for tidying up the common tables, helping the cleanliness of the bathrooms, along with the overall health of our school, students, and staff.