On January 6, during assembly, Mr. Boccuzzi gave an impassioned speech on the lack of respect for community spaces here at Lakeside. Before the winter break, an email was sent out informing students of vandalism occurring on the upper school campus. The email was sent amid an uptick in campus disrespect, especially in the library and in locker rooms.
With the opening of the T.J. Vassar ’68 Center for Sciences and Humanities soon to come, a question arises — if we cannot respect our current school spaces, what will we do to our new ones?
Primarily, it is important to differentiate between simple carelessness and neglect. Lakeside students are incredibly busy, often stressed, and, of course, still developing their prefrontal cortex. A few dishes left behind in the lunchroom or an accidental snack being consumed in the library would not usually constitute much of a problem. But vandalism, such as the recent incident in the boys’ locker rooms and restrooms, where students sprayed paint on lockers, smeared food on toilets, intentionally caused flooding, and applied human waste to the walls, is absolutely unacceptable and a breach of respect and responsibility.
And while student violation of the library rules by eating in the library, leaving trash, or breaking devices may seem less unpleasant, it is clear that these behaviors still form a pattern.
“Everyone breaks rules in the library,” was a common sentiment expressed in the January Tatler poll. Everyone has left their dish behind in the lunchroom or spilled food and left it behind for others to clean up. These alone are not malicious, but Lakeside students can do better.
“I’ll come over to [the staff room] at 11, where the teachers eat, and come back at 1:15 and see what they look like, and they look the same,” Mr. Dawkins, the Director of Maintenance, notes. So, perhaps it’s simply an issue of maturity. Students may view school spaces as someone else’s responsibility, or may simply have less experience in cleaning up after themselves.
Another aspect of Lakeside life is the lack of connection between the students and the people who clean up after them. If students had to look the library staff in the eyes before breaking a device, or if a table of students had to watch the janitors cleaning the trash and spilled food they had left behind, they would almost certainly feel more remorse. Alma Dedick is one of the janitors that spends her shift mopping spills off of the floor of the student center, picking up trash, and wiping down tables. “I think it’s made a difference,” Mr. Dawkins says. He notes that since Ms. Dedick began working at Lakeside, students have been better about cleaning up after themselves in the student center..
Additionally, Lakesiders might not be aware of the reason why they shouldn’t leave their trash and food crumbs lying around in the library—not only do the library staff have to spend their shift cleaning up the library instead of working on their responsibilities, but crumbs of food and trash also attract dangerous insects, which can create pest infections that destroy valuable books and materials. And because the Library is an open, airy building, with the second floor opening down into the first, sound carries — so boisterous gaming in one level can impact students trying their best to concentrate in another.
But what can Lakesiders do individually and as a community to address this problem?
“Form a leadership team to help with this challenge — if they see messes being left, address it in a way that will improve the situation,” Mr. Dawkins suggests. Other suggestions from students in the Tatler poll include hosting community cleanup days, holding each other accountable, and bringing back a competition from the middle school where each grade is incentivized to pick up trash.
One example of a solution is the Library Reset, a Student Government initiative which aimed to remind students of their responsibilities in the library and break bad habits including loud gaming, leaving trash behind, and eating in the library. So far, students have responded mostly positively — “I’ve been so grateful and impressed by how many Lakesiders have really shown interest and initiative in making a small adjustment or thinking about what would be helpful to us”, Carly Pansulla, the Upper School Library Department Head, acknowledges. “I’m really optimistic on how students here are not just meeting expectations, but really leading on caring for the space.”
When students attend Lakeside, they are entrusted with beautiful, well-cared-for, and incredibly-resourced facilities. The maintenance team and library staff work around the clock, every day, to make sure that these spaces stay clean and functioning.
As students transition from childhood to adulthood, they deserve to be given commensurate trust in their abilities to take care of a shared space. And for most of the smaller mistakes, students can improve by simply implementing systems or reminders, taking accountability for their actions, and encouraging others to do the same.
