Recently, there have been rumors of an unacknowledged plague on the students at GRHS. Students from all over the school suffer from the supposed tissue shortage, leaving them with a great amount of inconvenience and mild amounts of sadness. However, with all this talk around it, students have to wonder if the shortage is real, what could have caused it, and what they can do to get around it if it proves to not be a mere hallway rumor.

The tissue shortage was real. Many classrooms simply lacked tissues, and as more and more students used them, this issue was bound to extend to more. Some teachers had begun to restrict tissue usage from some of their classes as a way of conserving them. Many rooms that have tissues have rumors surrounding them, saying that their teachers brought in their tissue boxes just to replenish them. While this certainly is not the case for some, it seems too logical to not be true for at least one. However, even with all the problems it threatened to bring, the tissue shortage will likely merely be acknowledged as a small, passing issue in the future.

While the tissue shortage seemed like it was liable to become one of the biggest problems for students, it seems as though it will instantly be forgotten. The main source of the shortage was not, as rumored, an issue with the supply chain, but something much more simple. According to Ms. Aumack, the main office secretary, the explanation is that too many students were getting sick. As a result, they were constantly using tissues, depleting the supply far more quickly than they would have otherwise. In addition to this, an unusually high number of students got bloody noses, causing a substantial amount of tissue use. At this point, the school had a tissue shipment scheduled, but it was set to come in at a time when they expected there would still be a good amount of tissues. When students and teachers began using more than the school anticipated, it meant that the shipment would come at a time of very few available tissues. Although many students, including myself, were betting on the tissue shortage becoming a great plague on the school, it seems as though it has fizzled out just as fast as it emerged, with the new tissues just lying in the main office.

While the tissue shortage may not become a big issue, it is worth looking at what just happened to see what to do in the event of a major situation like this.

One of the best pieces of advice I can offer to avoid the blights of a potential tissue shortage is for students to begin using handkerchiefs. They can be used multiple times a day provided that you wash them in the evening. Ideally, you should get a rotation of five handkerchiefs to use each day and wash over the weekend. 

If you, for whatever reason, want to ignore the best solution to any tissue problem, there are luckily other ways to cope. If you want to refrain from bringing your own handkerchiefs to school, you can always bring your own tissues. If you find yourself able and willing, you could potentially donate tissue boxes to your various classrooms, but if you would rather not carry eight tissue boxes to school, you can bring your own tissue pack. Most are compact and can fit easily into your pockets, or the side pockets of your backpack. Luckily for students, it seems as though they will not have to be doing other things at the current moment.

Ultimately, the tissue shortage is over now, but it still says a lot about our school. The fact that many students and teachers were quick to believe that a true tissue shortage was approaching indicates how quickly simple rumors can spread and be blown out of proportion. At first, there were just a few classrooms that lacked tissues, but as this information spread, it caused many to believe that the problem was much worse and that it would not be solved soon. The fact that the shortage was caused by the collective school, and not by some far-off difficulty that we could take no blame for just highlights how quickly we try to cast blame away from ourselves by throwing it onto other people. The tissue shortage may prove to be a hoax, but the school’s reaction to it certainly was not.