Grass grows around the gazebo near the tennis courts on Aug. 28. A landscaping team cut it on Aug. 31. Photos by Rebeca Albani Rangel
By Rebeca Albani Rangel & Jameson Osborne
Riverside students encountered unusually long grass when they returned to campus last week.
The grass disrupted students when walking around the building and finding a spot to sit during lunch.
“I couldn’t even sit on the benches,” said junior Telvin Lofton.
Junior Rixy Rosales said it was a safety hazard.
“That tall grass was a really nice place for snakes to be at,” Rosales said. “It’s actually impacted me a lot because it was itching my legs. And when I went inside, my legs were itching afterwards.”
The grass is maintained by DPS, not Riverside. Assistant principal Kwame Stith and principal Gloria Woods Weeks contacted DPS about taking care of the landscaping many times.
“We communicated with them multiple times,” Stith said. “Dr. Woods Weeks has also communicated with DPS.”
The district’s landscaping team began cutting the grass on August 31. When the crew came in they started off with using a lawn mower, essentially just getting the grass short.
Then, on Sept. 1, a crew came in again and used a smaller mowing device to get the landscape more neat and clean along the edges of the sidewalk.
It was a multi-day process. The grass had to be cut twice, and the edges of the building and landscaping beds had to be cut with a weed wacker.
“I am happy that they cut the grass down, finally,” said Stith.
