Annual Autumn Bee Spree!

It was a seemingly average October Friday in room 211 of High School West until students began to hear the slight hum of bees in the background, heralding the beginning of the second year of the autumn bee spree of Hills West.

The students and faculty of Hills West have been experiencing this bothersome, and potentially hazardous, occurrence for the past two consecutive years.

According to the Head Custodian, John Carolan, the bee’s intrusion into the school happened around this time last year too, making him believe it to be a developing “annual occurrence,” just before winter. It is the cold, he deducts, that drives the bees to take shelter indoors whereas they usually wouldn’t dare.

Mr. Carolan revealed that “legally, we (the members of the janitorial staff) are not licensed to spray” the chemicals, that weaken and eventually kill the bees, on their own. Consequently, for the past two years, they have had to bring in professional companies to deal with the bee infestation plaguing room 211 and, more prominently last year, 212.

It was early this Wednesday, October 21st, that the professional exterminating company, the All-State Pesc Control, made it’s annual visit, sending a–reportedly very nice–man, dressed in full bee-annihilating attire, to take care of the bees, fully prepared for battle.

Although all students are certainly glad to see the bees go, their feedback on how the bees were handled is mixed. While some students are wholeheartedly agreeing that the bees had to go in whatever way possible, others maintain the opinion that there has to be a better way to handle the situation in the future. Viktoria Sims, a dedicated member of Teen Animal Protectors, argues that bees are an “essential part of our ecosystem” and if they are continuously killed whenever humans don’t want them around, the death tolls will eventually add up to make a substantial impact on the environment and, inevitably, our way of life. Although killing the bees may seem like a simple solution to solve the immediate problem, Viktoria alludes to the not-so-simple consequences if things continue in this direction, such as “half as much agriculture production” and, as a direct result, “an extreme strain on the attempt to feed 7 billion people worldwide.”

Although it may seem ludicrous to some students, based on the firm article offered above, the recent extermination of the bees has, for the most part, garnered widespread support. Each person has their own reasons for their position on what should be done about the ‘bee spree’ in the future, some reasons more serious than others due to the consideration of factors such as academic distraction, legitimate fear and even potential allergies.

Understandably, the most enthusiastic recipients of the news are those who are forced to function with the bees in room 211. Orel Adewale, an eleventh-grade student who attends science class in the aforementioned classroom, explained, that the reason she is happy to see the bees go is because she was so focused on “their ridiculous size” and  “not being stung by one” that she constantly found herself unable to focus on the class instruction.  

Perhaps the most elated of the class was the teacher of the class, Mr. Mirchel, who was pleased to report that the bees “seem to be dying” as a result of the exterminator’s visit on Wednesday, which is good for him because “people are scared of the bees,” which made teaching significantly more difficult. Fortunately for Mr. Mirchel, Orel, and all the other everyday frequents of room 211, the burden of the bees will no longer be an issue, at least for this year, thanks to the combined efforts of the janitorial staff and outside experts.

At the end of the day, almost all people, whether they are students or teachers, agree that the bees had to be stopped before they could file into the building and harm innocent students, whether directly or indirectly, through allergic reactions or academic distractions, respectively. The slight disparage over how the bee issue was resolved is indisputably overshadowed by the commendable fact that it is being handled, once again, through the collective efforts of the dedicated janitorial staff at High School West and the much appreciated professionals.

It is unanimous that these two parties, who have, once again, successfully rid the school of these seemingly unstoppable bee invasions, are practically heroes of the unfortunate room of 211 that has been plagued for the past two years.