When someone throws trash on my lawn or let's their dog poop and leaves it there....I pick it up and clean it because its my home and I take pride in it....I don't say, it's someone else's fault and leave it there.

You don't understand the point, it's not necessarily about who put it there.....the school is our students home during the day.....and they should take pride in ensuring it stays presentable and respectable ...irregardless of how it got that way. It's about leadership and responsibility not pointing fingers.

You are certainly right when you say that I don't understand your point. Let's see, somebody left trash on the grounds over the weekend when our kids weren't even there and it's their fault that they didn't hustle over on Sunday to clean up any potential mess that others may have left behind? Did you happen to take notice in the story of the community service hours completed by the Class of 2012? By my rough estimate, that amount is about double the number of hours required for graduation. So they went well above and beyond what was required. I have tried very hard to teach my own children to pick up their own trash and place it in the proper receptacles so that others don't have to follow behind them with trash bags. When I'm out walking my dog and it poops on your lawn I pick it up. What I don't do is ring your doorbell and harangue your children for not having been out there waiting for my dog to walk by and leave something so that they could clean it up. I don't know what it is that you have against these students, but I know a lot of Andover students who I consider to be kind, respectful, hard-working, and on and on. Of course nobody is perfect. But I find your insistence on discrediting this group to be offensive.

No Linda, that was not your point. You took the opportunity with a positive article about student accomplishment and used it to disparage those kids on their special day. It was mean-spirited and inappropriate. If you truly wanted to bring up a serious discussion about accountability for trash on the school grounds, you could have done so as a fresh topic. Then we could have talked about the fact that there were 25 kindergarten soccer matches at Andover the day before consisting of 500 players and another 500 to 750 parents and siblings or 1250 people attending with their requisite snacks and beverages, as happens every Saturday morning from mid-April thru early June. We could have further discussed where the responsibility lies for the trash generated by those folks. But instead, you chose to deliver a back-handed compliment to the graduates.

J. Wagner

If it's correct that there was a soccer match Mr. Arch probably has a good point--the soccer families that attend games in our area often display little or no consideration for others.