Attention, students: how clean do you think your school is? It’s only as clean as you decide to keep it, of course. Even so, most would be surprised at what germs can be found around campus.

Before Thanksgiving, Melissa Parton’s science classes took samples from various surfaces here at school.

Areas they swabbed include the buttons on the drink machines, keyboards from the computers in the library, weights and weight benches in the weight room, various light switches, and a few locker handles.

After taking samples, the classes created the perfect environment for the germs to grow in. They provided the right amount of food and the correct temperature.

When the samples had incubated, the results were shocking. From the locker handles and light switches alone, five to six types of bacteria and several types of fungi were yielded.

But here is the real shocker: from the drink machine buttons, keyboards in the library, and benches in the weight-room, cultures of E. coli were produced!

E. coli is highly contagious bacteria whose name is derived from the Latin, meaning, “of the colon.”

E. coli bacteria comes from a person’s fecal matter. This means someone (or a lot of someones) isn’t washing their hands!

Symptoms of E. coli include severe stomach cramps, bleeding, and bowel irritation. Children under the age of five and the elderly are affected the worst. Antibiotics should not be used to treat E. coli. If certain medicines are used, more complications can arise.

E. coli grows best in older foods stored in temperatures greater than 30 degrees Celsius.

This bacteria isn’t usually contracted. The few ways to get E. coli is ingesting it directly, coming in contact with a different type than your body is immune to, or picking up more of the bacteria than is already in your body.

Parton, however, has asked me to assure the student body that they are in no danger of E. coli spreading around our school.

With a smile on her face, she says, “Please tell them that no one is going to die!!”

Parton predicts nothing serious, and insists that students should take more time to wash their hands after using the bathroom.

Preventative measures would probably make everyone here at West feel more safely about what they touch on a day to day basis.

We can only take care of ourselves, but this should be a reminder to all that personal hygiene is a must in a world with so many people and so many germs.