Let me start in fifth grade, when I started going to middle school. The middle school in the town where I live has not been repaired since it was built in the 1970s. The bathrooms were my main concern. Most of the stalls didn't have doors on them, or the doors were broken. They were always flooded, graffiti was all over the walls and they were NEVER clean. People also ripped out the toilet paper and paper towels and threw them around the bathroom.  I don't blame the janitor for these things though, there is only one janitor during the day, and from 9:00am to 1:00pm he is in the cafeteria.

I was complaining so much this year (I'm in sixth grade now), that my mother told me to write to the newspaper.

So I did. Here is the letter:

I am a sixth grade student at (my school's name) and I have a question for someone in the School District. Why don't we have decent bathrooms in our school? I mean, I have to take someone into the bathroom with me to hold the stall door closed. There is always obscene writing on the walls, we never have toilet paper or paper towels, and they seem to never be clean. I know some schools in the other town don't have the best facilities either (I know their doors close, though), but if the district decided to repair a school, it would be one over there. My student council leader last year told me our school was considered the trashiest in the district. That made me furious! I want to take pride in my school, but its hard when no one else does, including the district. All I'm trying to say is, give the little unnoticed word at the end of the district logo some help.

I got a call that Friday from the "My Nickel's Worth" editor in the paper. He said they wanted my permission to publish the article. The letter came out that Sunday.

The next day (Monday) my principal called my mother and asked her if it would be all right if we had a meeting with the assistant superintendent, the two janitors at my school and the high school, the vice principal and herself. I never thought it would go this far.

We had the meeting that Thursday, and by then we had gotten two new doors from the high school. The meeting went well, and it was very productive. The painter will be in next month to paint the bathrooms so we won't be able to see the graffiti. We are trying to raise money for hand-dryers for the bathrooms to solve the paper towel problem, and the new doors are on backorder.

I was the one that caused all of this, and all it took was a letter. If you think you can't solve a problem, whether it be math (yuck!) or something bigger, look deep inside yourself. find the courage to do it. I did.

Dream02