Solving A Sticky Plague In The Name Of School Pride?
By Bob Harp
EL PASO — A sticky problem that has plagued schools, students and teachers for as long as anyone can remember, Picacho Middle School officials say they’ve solved the dilemma: what to do with chewing gum?
Mary Sanchez and her 8th-grade students have devised a plan to keep gum off the campus walls, walkways and out from underneath tables and chairs.
A statue of the school’s mascot – a scorpion – will be fashioned from the multi-colored, multi-flavored gobs of gum that would ordinarily end in the wrong places.
But Sanchez said the idea is to keep the campus clean and have the gum-chewers from sticking their wares just anywhere. Other teachers at the school have said they will allow students to stick their gum to it to help keep the campus clean.
“It’s not the kids who are here now, but the kids who have been here since the school opened. They have been putting gum on the floor and it has accumulated into quite a nasty problem in the long term,” Sanchez said.
For obvious sanitary reasons, a school maintenance worker will douse the ‘scorpion project’ each day with a sealant to dissolve and re-mesh all of the pieces stuck to it.
