“I can’t even recall all the times [it’s gotten stuck to me]. People leave it everywhere; I’m afraid to ever put my hands on the underside of a desk or chair,” said Chaim Dabah ’26. “[I touch it] all the time and it’s gross. It’s everywhere—just look under desks. Every single desk has at least 20 pieces!” said Jordan Title ’27.

“It” is gum, and it is a common problem at Ramaz. A recent poll conducted that surveyed 30 random students and teachers found that 56.7% reported getting gum stuck to them at least once, with 26.7% saying that this happened more than 3 times. 

But gum is just the tip of the iceberg—Ramaz is chock-full of messes. There is a very evident lack of respect towards the building from the students. “When it comes to cleaning the building, [students] place stuff all over the place and forget it,” said Cito Alicia, Superintendent of the Ramaz Upper School. “It’s gonna happen so it doesn’t shock us (the maintenance staff).” 

This disregard for the cleanliness of the building does have consequences, but the main perpetrators are not as affected as those who work in the building. 

“We’ve seen bugs and mice because of all the food that is around,” said Ms. Amanda Newman. And Cito sees it all the time. “We’re always combating rodents because students snack all day and there are so many vending machines.” The maintenance staff runs the floors five to six times a day to check for trash, so how is there still so much of it?

While carelessness plays a large role in the mess, some students have noticed others making messes intentionally.

Over Sukkot, a sophomore, who has chosen to remain anonymous, noticed some of their peers playing with mounds of powdered sugar that they had dumped on the table. 

“I found it really disrespectful and wasteful that people were just playing in powdered sugar. They not only made a mess but then left without cleaning it up for someone else to deal with who shouldn’t have had to. This both goes against what Ramaz stands for and shows a lack of derech eretz and menschlichkeit,” said the student. 

 Moreover, the mess also affects the learning environment: “When a person walks into a classroom or a lounge and it’s not nice and it’s dirty then the atmosphere is already lowered and you can’t get the same level of respect bye in even thinking and learning as when it looks nice.” said Ms. Newman. 

Apart from scattering trash everywhere, students also seem to be damaging school property, as well as treating school property carelessly. According to Richard Ortiz, Head of IT, over 1,000 repairs have been made so far this school year. Richard stresses that “There are issues no matter where you go,” highlighting that this issue is not unique to Ramaz. At Ramaz, however, “students break the phones a lot and SmartBoards are broken the most.” 

Ms. Newman’s concerns echo Richard’s statements. “As a teacher, the thing that’s the most frustrating is the SmartBoard; [students] messing with the keyboards, the board itself unplugging, or redoing the wiring so that you come in the morning and you can’t log in, you can’t use the touchscreen.” There used to be SmartBoard pens, “but they usually got stolen.” Ultimately “where the boundaries are is a bit of an issue,” said Ms. Newman. 

The TEC Rooms, in particular, are frequent victims of vandalism. 

Mr. David Aronson, TEC Department Chair, stated that the items damaged were “mostly things that have been left out that [students] have broken or bent during class. We had an Arduino last year. There was a mouse whose cable was cut. I bought like ten new mice for a Graphic Design [class] and someone just took a pair of scissors and cut a wire from it one day” 

More recently the Ramaz 3D printer was vandalized. “We left out some bolts and they were bent and broken when we came back the next day,” said Mr. Aronson. 

These small breakages have more of an effect than one might think. Mr. Aronson continued, “[it’s] really frustrating because it looks like very cheap parts that don’t cost anything but they’re actually precise bolts and those four bolts together cost 40 dollars.” This delayed the process of fixing the 3d printer. 

So, what can be done to help keep the school clean and prevent vandalization of school property? “Ramaz GO and students should be caring about the space,” said Cito. “[To combat the rodent problem] put candy in a Tupperware and be aware that when you go on vacation you should not leave any stuff.” Mr. Aronson agreed with Cito and echoed his sentiments. “We have to foster a culture of respect.” 

At the end of the day, Cito said it best: “We have to have a better culture of cleaning up after ourselves. It’s expected that we should respect each other’s space.”