Litter inside the Haldane Middle School hallways is causing quite a stink for students and teachers. “I love Haldane, to me it’s a second home, so it hurts me when I see the amount of trash left around,” Social Studies Teacher Jeffrey Sniffen said. On April 10, a student reported seeing 30 pieces of trash over the course of a single school day.
Trash has proven to be a problem for most middle schoolers, according to participants of a recent sixth-grade survey. According to the survey, many students are aggravated with the trash on the floor, some even adding that the litter makes every day a bit worse. They said being able to walk into a beautiful school every day and not constantly seeing trash would be much nicer. Seventh grader Violet Upham-Smith said, “There’s trash and garbage everywhere!”
When asked how to solve this ongoing problem, most middle schoolers in the survey said people should pick up the garbage even if it’s not theirs. Sniffen agreed. “I think the obvious first thing is to look around them and if they see something, pick it up,” he said. “I feel like people should have as much pride in this place as I do. I also think that helping others to see the garbage would do a lot to get people to be more involved.”
Some sixth-grade students have formed a club on their own to pick up garbage around the middle school and spread awareness. 75% of the 25 middle schoolers who took the survey also said they would be willing to help the cause.
Litter left around Haldane Middle School isn’t just an eyesore; it also makes life harder for the people who end up having to pick it up, and it affects the safety of the building. The Cold Spring Village Code states, “litter carelessly deposited in the Village is the cause of civic and public concern; that litter is a health, fire, and safety hazard and pollutant.” The code argues that litter should be minimized and “be subject to supervision and administrative control for the purpose of safeguarding the health, safety, and general welfare of the people of the Village.”
The same goes for Haldane Middle School, with the excessive amount of litter left around school grounds. Sixth grader Rosabelle Doan-Caselle said, “Put your stuff where it belongs.”
