Teenagers get caught up in their own lives and forget about the people that help New Albany function on a day-to-day basis. Here’s a look at what life is like for the underdogs of NAHS.
You walk into the school and the trashcans are overflowing, the tables in the cafeteria are sticky, the lights are burnt out, and everything is a disaster. You run into your friends and ask what has happened to the school. They tell you that all the janitors have left and this was the result. You stand there in disbelief because you never realized how much the janitors do on a daily basis.
By Caden Wheat
This realization came to me at the beginning of the school year when I had a thought come to mind. What goes on in this school that we, as students, aren’t completely aware of outside of demanding social media, significant others, and spending every day wrapped up in our world of high school drama!? I mean, I couldn’t possibly suggest that something was a bigger deal than my twitter feed right?
But that thought continued to trouble me and I wondered how our school stays clean and what the janitorial staff does in the school that is underappreciated.
David Wayne Davis Senior, more commonly known in our halls as Duke, has been at NAHS for eight years now and gave me the low down on what exactly he does in the school.
“I’m the schools trouble shooter. If the water fountain is torn off the wall, I get it fixed. Filters, lights, anything that goes wrong, they call me,” Duke said.
Although some students might find this job as something they wouldn’t like to do when they’re older or uninteresting, Duke has another opinion about it.
“It’s different everyday, you never know what is going to happen. You never know what a student is going to do,” Duke said.
But it’s not always rainbows and butterflies in Dukes world. There are some days that he can get frustrated working with high school students.
“If they tear a bathroom up one day, it’s torn up the next day,” Duke said.
So the next time you decide that you want to throw trash on the ground or graffiti the bathroom stall, maybe take a step back and think about the staff that has to clean that up.