Doing the little things should be easy.

“I think something very important happens here so I think the inside should show it,” said Elder High School principal, Mr. Tom Otten.

Elder is a very special place to Mr. Otten as well as many others. He serves as an inspiration for the whole Elder community by setting a good example. Every morning students see him roaming the property of Elder searching for plastic bottles, paper, and empty bags.

Hopefully, students will follow his lead and take more pride in their school by picking up trash, keeping tables clean, and even just flushing the toilets. The most basic details show who we are as a school and what we stand for.

By keeping Elder orderly, in conveys excellence to the rest of the community. It is our responsibility, along with the maintenance, to keep Elder clean.

Students can start by watching for common pieces of trash left around the campus.

James Robb, who has been a janitor for 12 years, said,  “The most common pieces of trash I find are Gatorade bottles and potato chip bags.”

It is important to know these objects because then it can be stopped from the source.  There are trash cans all around the school and it is not much of a hassle to use them instead of leaving junk on the tables or around the halls.

“It would be a great help if students put trash in the right containers,” said William Klayer, head of Elder’s maintenance and repair.

Students should be aware of where they are throwing trash away. It is important the plastics go with plastics, paper goes with paper, and recyclables go with recyclables. It creates a whole new job for the janitors if they have to sort through the trash to make sure garbage is in the right bin.

Another unnecessary job for the janitors at Elder is the un-flushed toilets. Many people claim to take great pride in their school but they can’t even take care of it by doing something as simple as flushing. Even if it wasn’t you that didn’t flush, it is so easy to do and it provides such a great help to the janitorial staff.

School pride is not all about attending sporting events or protecting the seal outside of the Schaeper Center. It starts with the little things. We can set a good example for other schools and for the community by doing something as easy as picking up a loose sheet of paper on our way to the next class period.