School board votes to prohibit gum on campuses

DOWNEY - The Downey Unified School District voted Tuesday to prohibit chewing gum at its middle and high schools.

There was previously no official policy surrounding gum, though Warren and Columbus High and Sussman Middle schools prohibit the selling of gum, and Doty, Griffiths, and Stauffer Middle Schools prohibited it on campus.

The main concern over gum is mostly comes from the residue and stains it leaves on the concrete pathways, even after having been power washed by district maintenance crews.

“After all the construction that we’ve done on the campus sites, particularly at the middle schools and the high schools, when we go and other folks go, we see, depending on our maintenance crew has last been through, evidence of gum that has been dropped off on the concrete,” said Board Member D. Mark Morris.

Morris went on to say that prohibiting gum outright would help campuses “look better,” and “save our maintenance staff the time and trouble it takes to take that stuff off the concrete.”

President Bobbi Samperi later made similar remarks.

“All this money we put into the schools, and then you walk around and see black spot, black spot, black spot, black spot,” said Samperi.

Maintenance crews power wash campus grounds “primarily during the summer,” and during other breaks when time allows.

While most of the council seemed in favor of or willing to go along with the ban, Board member Linda Salomon Saldana raised some concerns that students chew gum as a coping mechanism to stress, especially after the effects of the pandemic.

“It is a clean, sane, common thing for some kids to be able to chew that gum,” said Salomon Saldana. “I just want to make sure that we outright ban something that is safe and okay for them to do, what is the alternative?”

The Board ultimately voted 5-2 in favor of prohibiting gum, with Board members Salomon Saldana and Jose Rodriguez opposed.