Sophomore Charlie Haring said when she hears about McCallum, she usually thinks about all the trash that surrounds it.

“The trash around McCallum is extremely disappointing,” Haring said. “It seems no matter how much you pick up, more appears.”

Johnson Stevenson said the trash looks poorly on the students’ part.

“I think it shows complete disrespect. People should take pride in our school,” he said. “Instead of people always complaining about how bad things are, they should try and make things better.”

Many students have expressed concern about the appearance of the campus. Vandalism in the bathrooms is something junior Cady Chesnut said she doesn’t understand.

“I feel it’s ridiculous that they keep the bathrooms locked all the time,” Chesnut said. “It’s stupid how people trash them.”

According to choir director Gene Raymond, every time the school hosts performances, others see the bathrooms here, and it can be embarrassing.

“Kids don’t know how to represent themselves, so we lock them up,” he said. “[Those bathrooms] represent us to our outside public.”

Joey Smith said students are not to blame for not helping to keep the school clean.

“It’s not that I don’t care; it’s just not one of my top priorities,” he said. “It’s not that students don’t care. People just don’t care.”

Lisa Jones didn’t show concern about the trash around McCallum. 

“I don’t really care,” she said, “because I don’t really care about this school.”

Tina Garza claims she actually took part in vandalizing the school. 

“We’ve vandalized some portables, nothing really big,” she said. “We did the smoke bombs last year in the main hallways, and now the tile is orange where it happened.”

Trashing the school doesn’t make sense, according to senior Kurtiss Colvin.

“I think people should really consider picking up their trash around McCallum,” Coleman said. “You don’t want others trashing your school, so why would you?”

People should treat the school as well as they do their homes, said building manager Mary Noack.

“Do they do that at home? Why would you treat your school like that?” she said. “Principal Mike Garrison and I are working very hard to make sure that it’s not easy to do.”

Junior Amanda Nixon said McCallum should be a place everyone looks after.

“I think if we all have to go here, we should all take responsibility in how our school looks and functions,” she said. “I don’t want to say we need more supervision, but that’s what it basically comes to.”

This story was originally published in The Shield on Nov. 24, 2003.