Custodians are people too! Or has Council lost touch with reality?
Custodians are people too! They clean up our messes, constantly have to deal with teenagers and their shenanigans. They work late, sometimes all night, to keep the school looking pristine, as it always does.
“It would just add some time on the custodians part” says Council, on the 25th of February, during the condom debate. Excuse me? Did they really just say that? Unfortunately, yes Council did say that. Have they lost touch with reality? I think so. The custodians work hard to support their families and themselves, and Council thinks its okay to put the burden of potential condom clean up on the custodians, just so they can get their motion passed? Sounds like someone hasn’t cleaned anything up themselves recently.
Hearing Council utter that took me back to the 1960’s. Its like saying, “Oh don’t worry, the help will take care of that.” Can you imagine how frustrated you would feel if you were told by your higher-ups that you had to listen to a bunch of kids? The statement “It would just add some time on the custodians part” also sums up so called “Hanover Privilege” that everything will be taken care of by some seemingly “lesser” person. Just think how that would feel to have to clean up condoms (especially the pre-lubed, spermicidal ones), off the floor. That is definitely a low point in a job.
So please, Council considers others (especially the custodians) instead of selfishly shoving your motion’s aftermath into other people’s hands (literally). This is a wake-up call, Council: regain your grasp on reality and check your sense of privilege.
This isn’t just about condoms, most people leave their trash on the tables in the atrium, for either Ford, Mr. Smith other teachers or the custodians to clean up. If you can’t clean up your own trash, you can’t handle condoms. But, I fully support the idea of birth control methods and STD prevention being made available in the Nurses office. It is up to the student body to put on their big-boy-panties and not dick around with the condoms (pun intended).
I was the one who made the comment about custodians, but I believe I was quoted out of context. When I said that “it would add some time on the custodians part,” I was referencing potential abuse of condoms. I had said that, hypothetically, if someone were to blow up a bunch of condoms as balloons and leave them in the halls, yes there would be a mess, yes the custodians would have take some time to clean it up, but the potential benefits of preventing even one student from becoming pregnant would be so much greater than that. I am in no way disrespecting or belittling the custodians and the valuable effort they put in to maintaining our school. When I see trash left in the Atrium and Pit, I get annoyed, because I too believe people need to clean up after themselves.
And I’m certain I have not lost touch with reality.
Hope that clears things up!