Thank you, Custodians of Glenforest

By Suril Shah
     Custodian, from the Latin word custodies, is a person who is a guardian, a keeper, or a protector. But this word has been distorted to no longer mean something so mighty and powerful. To many of us however, custodians are the people, who we as students, treat poorly; people who clean what we don’t want to clean ourselves, fix what we don’t want to fix ourselves, and look at things no one should ever have to look at. It is understandable why a few of them may come across as rude or bitter, but it is only because we are treating them so rudely and disrespectfully in turn! As an occasional washroom user, I have seen my fair share of human waste on the floor (and walls) instead of in the toilet. Have some guys in our school never used a toilet before? Honestly, how do you mess up something like that? Life lesson: the poopoo goes into the toilet guys. But it doesn’t stop there; students have a tendency to take our custodial staff for granted. Every day, as they work tirelessly to clean and maintain our aging school, all we do is track mud, rain water and garbage inside like we know someone will just clean it up. Even in the cafeteria, instead of throwing out their rubbish, students just leave their leftovers and garbage on the tables when the closest garbage can or recycling bin is a mere 10 steps away! Some may call Glenforest a home away from home, but do you poop on the floors in your house? Do you leave garbage lying around for someone else to pick up? Of course not! That is why we need to start owning up to our messes and help out our custodial staff. We need to start showing some respect and consideration for the hard working custodians at our school. Say “Good morning!” and flash them a smile when you walk past them, start picking up your own garbage, and take a few seconds to wipe your feet on the mats before walking into the school. These little things may not take a lot of effort from you, but it can save a lot of time for the person who has to clean it up. I would like to take this opportunity to give them a warm and sincere thank you. And I would also like to ask you, the readers, to also stop and say thank you.

Issue: Thursday December 16, 2010