By Cory Bilicko
Managing editor
After I published a June 20 commentary entitled “How a local middle school ‘distinguishes’ itself,” wherein I expressed my disappointment with the large amount of trash on and around the campus of Hughes Middle School, I was relieved and encouraged by the great number of individuals who responded to that opinion piece and indicated that they shared in my frustration with the problem.
One Bixby Knolls couple who lives a block from the school called me a few weeks ago and invited me to their home to participate in a community meeting last Wednesday evening to discuss the issue. In addition to that welcoming husband and wife, those attending the meeting were District 1 School Board Member Megan Kerr (who had been on the job only a week), Cathy Procopio (who runs the school’s Green Team), Diane Taylor (the school’s librarian who’s actively involved with Cathy to combat the litter problem), a Hughes science teacher who also serves as the school’s facilitator, and about seven others who reside on California Avenue, very close to the middle school that has won numerous awards for its environmental efforts.
(That irony, by the way, is one that is not lost on Cathy, who has spearheaded impressive ecological projects at Hughes and helped to enact great progress in educating students on environmental issues but will be the first to tell you that, although many of the students there have become knowledgeable about “green” lifestyles and are conscientious about recycling, there still seems to be an unreasonable amount of trash generated by the kids.)
In Wednesday’s meeting, we attempted to pinpoint the sources of the problem. Is littering an action that the students learn from their parents? Is it a cultural behavior? Do many of the students carelessly toss their trash onto the ground because they have no pride in the neighborhood, because they don’t live there?
One thing that Cathy pointed out is that, although many of the school’s students are indeed good citizens who utilize trash cans and recyle bins, there are still enough kids who don’t, and that can make a difference. She theorized that about 80 percent of the student body properly disposes of trash, about 17 percent do not, and roughly 3 percent fall into a gray area in which, if there’s already trash on the ground, then they’ll figure it makes no difference to toss more litter there.
We brainstormed and generated ideas for addressing the kids: colorful, bold signs hung around the campus beginning on the first day of school that educate students about the fact that littering is illegal and that encourage them to dispose of their litter properly; rewards for students who do use trash cans; including expectations of the kids (where litter is concerned) within their new-school-year packets; and posting signs in residents’ yards encouraging kids not to litter (or loiter) on private property.
One theme of the meeting was that we should focus on what we residents and school employees can affect (students) rather than what we cannot change (parents). Likewise, it was also acknowledged that it is not just Hughes students who generate the trash, it’s also caused by people who attend little-league soccer games on weekends.
By the end of the one-hour-and-45-minute meeting, we’d developed a list of potential solutions that involved contacting various individuals and offices in positions of authority, possibly seeking grant money for litter-addressing programs, and attaining more trash cans for the school’s perimeter.
In a few weeks, I hope to share news of some of the progress these concerned residents and school officials have made.
In the meantime, I’m satisfied in knowing that I am certainly not the only one who sees the problem and wants to do something about it.
