p. 4 new

Mirador4 News 11/6/09

by Alex Seclow

There is a huge problem of excess trash in the world. There is so much that a collec-tion of plastic debris twice the size of Texas known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has formed. According to www.earthresources-recycling.com, created by the GreenWise Company, the average American will leave a legacy of 112,420 pounds of trash behind for his or her children. Landfills are overflowing as our amount of trash is exponentially in-creasing. Miramonte is no exception.

After lunch, half-eaten cafeteria food, pa-per and plastic bags, water bottles, crumpled wrappers, banana peels and other food rem-nants line tables and benches on Miramonte’s campus.

According to Principal Adam Clark, trash at Miramonte is a major issue. Clark was shocked to discover that students neglect to throw out their trash, even when a trashcan lies five feet away. Clark thought that trash might be a freshmen problem, but was amazed to find out that trash is evenly spread out all over Miramonte’s campus, not just in the areas where freshmen frequently sit.

“Miramonte is a beautiful school,” said Clark. “Stu-dents need to have a great pride in their school and should want to keep it looking nice. We also need to influence one another and remind one another to pick up our trash.”

At Miramonte, budget cuts have caused the district to cut back on the number of custodians. Lately, it takes custodians over an hour after lunch to pick up students’ waste.

“The trash here is pretty bad,” said a Miramonte custo-dian. “After Powder Puff there was trash everywhere on

by Eric Hass

On Nov. 14, at Miramonte, children of all ages will compete in mini-triathlons.

The triathlon is being held in honor of Joe Loudon.Kindergarteners to second-graders will swim two standard laps,

bike three-quarters of a mile, and run a third of a mile, while high-schoolers will swim 16 laps, bike seven miles, and run two miles.

Participants can compete in all three events, or a three-person team may share the events’ responsibilities. Either one is perfectly fine, but there will be separate categories.

The website provides more information: http://www.norcalkid-stri.org

Registration is $40 for single participants and $100 for teams. The money will go to the Orinda Community Fund, which supports youth programs and events.

Make sure to eat a nutritious breakfast.

by Sophia Bollag

When a burglar was seen running in the direction of Acalanes High School on Tuesday, Oct. 20, the school went into lockdown mode. The lockdown began during the beginning of fifth period and lasted for over an hour.

“A police officer came to my office and told the administrative team that there was an ‘interrupted burglary’ on the same block as Acalanes High School and that one of the burglars ran towards our school on foot,” said Acalanes Principal Aida Glimme. “In or-der to keep the students safe we made the decision to lock down the school and the district office.”

No one on campus was hurt, and the police searched the school carefully to ensure that it was safe before the lock down ended. The burglars, however, were not caught.

“We think that the lockdown was successful and efficient,” said Glimme. “All teachers and students were well prepared and knew the procedures and followed them. We felt that we had the situation under control.”

Burglar Triggers AHS Lockdown

Trash Continues to Pile Up On CampusGarbage left by students causes more work for limited custodial staff

NorCal Triathlon Honors Loudon

Halloween Visits MHS Earlyby Marina Allen

On Friday, Oct. 30, Miramonte celebrated Halloween with costumes and lunchtime activities. Mira-monte’s dance class performed Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in the cafeteria and once again on the quad. “Bladam’s Bash” hosted by rally leader Adam Gibson, invited students to a lunch time dance party in the cafeteria.

Photo: L. Stewart

Clockwise from top left: Juniors Natalie Reed, Selena Ross and Shannon Garvey dress as mermaids; Miramonte dance students per-form “Thriller” in the cafeteria; Jennifer Moore dresses as Dorothy while preparing her Hallow-een chemistry experiment; Seniors dressed as teletubbies dance at lunch.

Photo: I. Lee

Photo: M. Quiter

Photo: L. Stewart

Photo: D. Louie

Students typically abandon large amounts of trash all over campus after lunch.

the quad. We have only one custodian on duty at night, so we all have to take on the extra work. I am hustling all day long. I have to fight to get out of here by 3:30.”

Clark and others in the administration have ordered more trashcans and have started patrolling around during lunch to remind students to throw out their trash. Clark claims that he has already begun to see a slight improve-ment on campus.

“Picking up your trash may seem small, but if everyone does, there can be huge results”, said Clark. “Students can learn a lesson from this. We only have one world, so let’s take care of it. You students will be our future leaders. You are the leaders of tomorrow. You will be the future policy makers, lawyers, and doctors that will set the trends.”

Clark has decided that only once the trash problem is solved will he consider the possibility of adding another

school dance. “If we’re having a hard time picking up

trash, our own trash, should we have more dances?” said Clark.

Clark believes that in order to ask teach-ers and staff to come out on their own time to help with the dances, the trash problem will definitely need to be solved.

“We all love Miramonte, right? Everyone loves Miramonte, it’s a great place and we want it to be the best it can possibly be,” said Clark. “I am open to discussing [the dances], but the trash will have to be dealt with first.”

AP Environmental Science teacher Bar-bara Denny described waste at Miramonte as an ongoing problem. She said that she also found that students often don’t use the recycling bins. Last year Miramonte received an additional 50 recycling bins so Denny be-lieves that there is “no excuse” to not recycle.

She has also found over the years that students continue to incorrectly recycle items, such as plastic bags, that be-long in the trash. She is worried about the extra work for the custodians when there are fewer of them. She and the other teachers believe the students need to be more appre-ciative of what they do for our campus.

Denny encourages students to sign up for the Environ-mental Club, Interact, and Sustainability Club if they are interested in doing more to help limit Miramonte’s waste.

“There are many ways students can help lessen the amount of trash they generate,” said Denny. “They can work to make a more sustainable lunch by using reusable lunch bags, plastic containers for sandwiches, and reus-able water bottles such as Klean Kanteen or Sigg.”

Denny stresses that these little steps will help make Miramonte a better place.