The Tissue Issue

The Tissue Issue

By Isaac Shapiro

An Eye of the Storm investigation of the issues that matter at TABC.

Since this article was written, the school has begun distributing tissues in the classrooms. However, Isaac Shapiro’s reporting during the tissue crisis, gives readers insight into the fallout from the administration’s initial decision to stop supplying tissues to students.

Almost every student at TABC knows about the infamous removal of tissues by the school administration. However, almost nobody knows why the school made the decision or who was behind it. This article will discuss just that.

When students arrived in school this year we were flabbergasted to discover that tissues were no longer supplied in the classrooms by the TABC office, as they had been in past years. Many students complained about this lack of tissues.

I interviewed a few students to find out exactly how they feel about the situation.

Moshe Dergel (‘20) said that he feels the school should be supplying us with tissues because “we need tissues for our issues.” Thank you Moshe for the inspiration for the title.

When I asked Shalom Tuchman (‘20) how he feels about the tissue situation, he said, “it is disgusting and people need to let out their snot in their nose and that is not safe.” A very well stated answer from Shalom.

Teachers have complained that the tissues are a class disruption when students leave to get them, but surely it it more disruptive and disgusting for students to be sniffling in their snot the entire period.

Avraham Gellman (‘19) said that he is “upset,” and will be more upset, “when it comes to allergy season, the time when tissues are more crucial in the school.” He continued by saying “right now I am kind of upset, but that anger is going to escalate.” Mr. Gellman also said that he believes that “tissues are a right that we all deserve.” Thank you Avraham for the wise words and strong opinion.

Ben Englander (‘20) said, “In every class I need to blow my nose.” You heard it here first, some students need to blow their nose in every class!

About a month ago, students organized a “tissue sit-in,” where students sat down in front of the office demanding tissues in the forms of various chants such as, “we want tissues” and “bring back the tissues.” The office responded to these complaints by telling us to bring our own tissues from home.

The results have been mixed. Some students now bring tissues from home and others still refuse. However, all students agree that the absence of tissues at TABC is a major annoyance. When we wake up in the morning and get ready for school, we usually forget to bring tissues, because it is not a normal thing to have to remember, and it is hard to prepare them the night before because we are often up late “doing homework.”

Outraged about the disappearance of the tissues, students still don’t understand why the school has taken away this privilege we have enjoyed for so many years. Many students believe that the school did this to save money. However, these students are wrong.

I sought out faculty to explain the administration’s position on tissues. According to Mrs. Maya Engler, Rabbi Yablok’s assistant, the school decided to stop supplying tissues this year because last year, tissues caused a huge disruption at TABC. In the past, Mrs. Engler said, students would constantly come to the office asking for tissues. “It is extremely annoying,” she said, to be fetching tissues for students on and off all day.

“I did not go to college to get students tissues, ” Mrs. Engler said. When asked whether the budget had anything to do with the decision, she said there was no connection and in fact, the office currently has tissues which will be supplied to students in the near future. Mrs. Engler added that students are wrong in claiming it is unfair the school took away our tissues and that our rights are not being violated. In fact, many other schools including The Frisch School do not supply students with free tissues.

I interviewed Teri Normand, the school’s executive director. Mrs. Normand said that tissues not only caused a disruption in the office, but in the classroom as well. The school, she said, doesn’t “want students leaving class in the middle of the period to come get tissues, because it is disruptive to the teachers and to the office staff as well.”

You may ask, is there any solution to the tissue issue? Mrs. Engler mentioned that the school still has tissue boxes; however, staff members are not handing them out from the office to avoid the issues mentioned above. An idea mentioned by one administrator is to have the janitors put out two tissue boxes in classrooms every morning and keep none in the office. It sounds like a solution similar to one that will take effect in the coming weeks, but nobody is sure. Until then, the tissue issue continues.