Throughout the school day and throughout the evenings, UHS custodians diligently work to keep our school grounds clean and productive. 

Although most students make an effort to keep campus clean, it is inevitable that there will be some waste that is left behind by the crowds of students bolting to and fro their classes. 

“I always manage to find a plastic wrapper whenever I sit at Latin Hill [which also] always has [remains of] food,” junior Vivian Huang said. “I’ve even spilled a piece of my lunch on the grass before. At this point, literally everyone has probably dropped something that they didn’t clean afterwards.”

While a couple grapes and bread crumbs may not seem to amount to much, they have a horrendous consequence: food scraps lure ants, rats and other vermin into our classrooms.

If it were not for the hard work of our custodians, the school would be infested with pests. Several teachers have already mentioned accounts of ants and rats in their classrooms, as well as cockroaches, within the first couple months of school.

“You will get rats in classrooms and sometimes we will have to put rat traps in the classrooms,” custodian George Hernandez said. “We will also get ants here but it is very easy to maintain that stuff.”

Custodians work around the clock to maximize their efforts within the limited amount of time they are working. Regardless of how tedious their tasks are, they go above and beyond to connect with the UHS community and their co-workers. 

“I like interacting with the students and the teachers here,” Hernandez said. “[Students and teachers] make my job a lot better and it’s fun coming to work to work with [my coworkers].”

Their efforts have not gone unnoticed by the students and are greatly appreciated. 

“I am always so grateful for the custodians at our school because they always clean up after us even though all of us are so messy, especially in the bathrooms,” junior Gurman Brar said. 

Since the pandemic, the custodians have been putting in extra effort to keep us healthy and keep themselves up-to-date on the latest COVID guidelines. The extra efforts have been vital in this day and age where sanitation is of utmost importance. Some students even suggest that students should become more aware of their surroundings and help carry the burden of keeping the school clean.

“I hope that people start realizing how important these custodians are,” Huang said. “I know a lot of people forget that custodians even exist, but these people dedicate so much to keeping our school clean for all of us, I think we should take out at least a couple minutes out of our day to clean up after ourselves.

Although the custodians have been maintaining the UHS campus well, most custodians believe that there could be some changes within the UHS community that can keep the campus environment pristine. 

“Make sure to throw out all your trash in the trash cans around campus,” Hernandez said. “I think it would make it a lot easier for all of us and it would make the school look a lot cleaner.” 

These individuals may seem like regular UHS staff, however, their impact work and efforts should not be underestimated. UHS custodians are a vital asset to helping the UHS community and help maintain UHS’ pristine reputation.