School at times moves fast, with our focus on grades, home­work and friends. It’s easy to accel­er­ate through it. Conse­quently, we often over­look those vital to making our expe­ri­ence at school safe, enjoy­able and educa­tional. Work­ers like custo­di­ans, librar­i­ans, lunch ladies and secu­rity. These work­ers provide massive impacts to our years in school, yet at times we give mini­mal appre­ci­a­tion. In 2023 in Los Ange­les, school employ­ees felt under­ap­pre­ci­ated and announced a strike for more recog­ni­tion. This impor­tant issue can be prevented by getting a deeper under­stand­ing of the staff’s perspec­tive and contri­bu­tions, so that we as a soci­ety can give staff the proper recog­ni­tion they deserve. 

    You have prob­a­bly seen Mr. Wall patrolling the hall­ways. He works as secu­rity at Justice and is running on his 7^th year here. With recent endan­ger­ment of students in schools due to gun violence, Mr Wall helps in provid­ing a crucial role at Justice. “My number one prior­ity is to make sure students and staff are safe and secure. One of my top prior­i­ties is to keep kids want­ing to come back to school so they don’t have to feel like they’re being bullied or intim­i­dated.” I inter­viewed students on their perspec­tive of the impor­tance of Mr Walls oblig­a­tion and how he has helped them. Sopho­more Hamza Ouzzad shares his thoughts, “Mr Wall makes me feel safe coming to school with me know­ing that there is always some­body in the hall­ways to protect and notify us if anything is wrong.”, “Mr Wall also makes school a more posi­tive place with his friendly conver­sa­tions in the hall­ways” Hamza adds.

     In addi­tion to safety, staff also aid in secur­ing students’ health. Ms.Villatoro, a public health nurse here explains what kind of prob­lems she fixes at Justice, “some prob­lems I encounter at Justice are complex medical needs for a lot of students, so I have to make sure each student that comes to Justice is safe as well as offer­ing support they need medical related.” Addi­tion­ally, staff like Ms Villa­toro assist students in attain­ing insur­ance, care plans and connec­tions to doctors.

     Accord­ing to FCPS, approx­i­mately 75.5 percent of students are eligi­ble for taking the bus for trans­porta­tion to school. This goes to show how impor­tant bus drivers are, but what moti­vates them to continue to work at Justice. John Jay Doures A bus driver for FCPS, relates it to the kids. He explains, “Honestly, I do it for the kids. I’ve known some kids ever since I started driving when they were 5^th graders and now they’re seniors, so it’s nice to see them grow over the years.”

     Over­all, the jobs done by these staff is very telling of their commit­ment and dedi­ca­tion. We as soci­ety should shed more light on these contri­bu­tions. Take some time out of your day to greet your bus driver, nurse or custo­dian. It’s impor­tant to show your appre­ci­a­tion to those who make up the back­bone of Justice.