Bags of trash from local fast-food restaurants are a common sight behind Hughes Middle School.
Managing editor
Not all of us are lucky enough to say we live right next to a “California Distinguished School.” But I can.
I reside directly behind Hughes Middle School, which, in addition to earning that high distinction, has won numerous awards for its environmental efforts. In fact, last year, the U.S. Department of Education recognized the school’s eco-friendly efforts with a Green Ribbon award for promoting environmental awareness and preparing students to succeed in the emerging green economy. I learned about this achievement when I received a press release from the school publicizing it. This announcement has been one of many that Hughes sends the Signal Tribune sharing news of its environmental undertakings and the resulting accolades, and I’m happy to publish them in our newspaper. I even go to the school after work and take photos to publish with those news items.
But there’s an irony to all this.
After receiving these emails touting the school’s exemplary “green” efforts and publishing the news therein, I then head home during my lunch break or after my work day and drive into my neighborhood, only to discover that it is utterly filthy with trash generated by the students at Hughes.
Yes, I have notified the school about this matter. I’ve sent emails, spoken to two vice principals in person and met with a committee of teachers there who are just as disgusted by the litter as I am. We actually took time out of our treasured weekends to meet up at a local coffee shop to brainstorm ideas on how to address the problem. I appreciated that they see it as a problem, just as I do. Unfortunately, one of the VPs to whom I had spoken told me later that she’d talked to the principal, who blamed the trash problem on after-school “skaters.” (Funny— I’ve never even seen a single skater at Hughes at any time, and I have a hard time visualizing a group of skaters being able to produce that amount of garbage. But, although I’ve never beheld them myself, I’m glad they are indeed skating, so they can work off all the calories they’re consuming from the hundreds of junk-food items they’re eating to cause all that litter.)
This problem, for me, though, reached its apex last week.
The middle school’s academic year ended, and they left behind an inordinate amount of litter compared to what is usually there. I was dumbfounded, and, after all my supportive tactics of publicizing their good “green” deeds, after all my efforts to discuss the matter with school staff in a neighborly manner, and after participating in meetings to brainstorm solutions, this felt like a big slap in the face. The school year was done, the kids were off having fun, the school’s faculty and administrators were now home in their own (presumably) clean neighborhoods, and we Hughes neighbors were stuck with a trash-laden community.
But that’s not all. The families who came to the school the following weekend to watch their kids play little-league soccer left behind their trash. Someone even tossed the shoe box for a brand-new pair of soccer shoes a few feet from my car. Unbelievable!
But it doesn’t end with that, because, what happens in this situation is that some of the less-than-conscientious residents of Long Beach park on the street behind Hughes, eat their fast food, and then toss the entire bag of trash onto the street, letting the contents spill out and then get scattered around by the wind. They obviously see this neighborhood as one where the residents clearly don’t care about cleanliness, so “What’s the harm in one more bag of garbage, or one more soda can, or one more six-pack of beer bottles?”
So, last Monday afternoon, I spent an hour and 15 minutes picking up all the litter on that section of the street. By the time I was done, I’d filled up what amounted to two trash bags full of candy wrappers, gum wrappers, straws, napkins, assignments, graduation-day programs, soiled Band-Aids (I picked up three), potato-chip bags, juice containers, etc.
Now, at least the area behind my home is clean, and, based on what I’ve observed over the last three summers that I’ve lived there, that area, with very few exceptions, will remain largely litter-free.
I guess I should be grateful that I at least have until Wednesday, Sept. 3 to enjoy it.
If you have any ideas for how to address this problem, please share them at newspaper@signaltribune.com .
