By: Candace Lu

How important is soap? The simple answer: very. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), washing your hands with soap and water is “the best way to remove germs, avoid getting sick, and prevent the spread of germs to others.” Despite its importance, especially during the Covid pandemic, soap is nowhere to be found in the girls’ cafeteria bathroom of Sutter Middle School during 7th-grade lunch.

Students may use hand sanitizer, but germs can hide within dirt and grime that hand sanitizers don’t get to. Furthermore, hand sanitizer isn’t 100% effective because it’s very hard to cover your entire hand.

To address the lack of soap in the cafeteria bathroom, children began to place sticky notes on the dispensers saying, “GIVE US SOAP”. These efforts went unnoticed, so instead, somebody placed a small bottle of liquid soap on the counter; however, it was quickly used up. Many groups of girls have had to visit other bathrooms just to cleanse their hands.

“I don’t like it, it’s unsanitary and I have to go to different bathrooms just for soap,” said one student.

Other students have stated that the situation is “unfair” and “it sucked”.

It is still unclear why there isn’t any soap. Perhaps the 6th graders could use it all up during their lunch period, the shipments are just being delayed, or the staff is unaware. Whatever the reason is, soap is a necessity, and is very much needed during the pandemic. So, as all the 7th-grade girls at Sutter Middle School beg, “PLEASE GIVE US SOAP”!