Athenian Thirsts for Environmental Justice
In the year 2100, climate change has made Death Valley AWE unfeasible, and the drought and groundwater shortage in California has become a serious and chronic environmental crisis. Whereas environmentalism is one of six Athenian pillars, which the school has upheld through various programs such as Meatless Monday, the Athenian school announced a new campaign, Waterless Wednesday.
Waterless Wednesday was proposed and implemented by the administration over the summer as the drought worsened. Though an email was sent before the end of the break, because no one ever reads their email, the discussion of the new campaign during the first community meeting invoked instant shock (and some seniors were still left in the dark about the new plan, as they skipped community meeting).
The announcement prohibited any use of water—including the water fountain, the sprinkler, the restroom, and even the kitchen—every Wednesday. Any waste of water also became forbidden such as crying, spitting, and sweating. Like its precedent, Meatless Monday, and Waterless Wednesday faced numerous complaints and opposition.
Students first criticized Waterless Wednesday for causing dehydration thereby compromising their academic performance, which could ultimately lead to lowering their GPA and risking their college admission prospects. Teachers dismissed this concern by promptly replying that first, GPA and getting into colleges is not and should never be a primary purpose of learning and second, students can take reassessments when they are well hydrated. Some teachers, including Gabe, even claimed that dehydration would serve as a challenge to overcome and allow students to grow resilience. They even quoted a famous AWE phrase “There’s more (water) in you than you think.”
Moreover, the teachers told their students that both the stress about college admission and the necessity of water for survival is the dominant narrative perpetuated by the white supremacy, patriarchy, and racism baked into society, as Waterless Wednesday will serve as a counternarrative for those systematic injustices. While explaining the importance of counternarrative, teachers played the famous TEDtalk video “The Danger of the Single Story.”
Another concern from students was that Waterless Wednesday’s strict banning of sweating and lingering dehydration would diminish students’ athletic ability, which could lead to damaging school spirit by undermining the school’s team sports performance—specifically basketball.
Another critique of the new campaign unexpectedly came from the Muslim community, which argued that Waterless Wednesday appropriates Ramadan. The DEIS office took this critique with all seriousness, holding several community meetings to emphasize the inclusivity and diversity on the Athenian campus, finally resolving that Waterless Wednesday is not cultural appropriation because the school understands the cultural context of Ramadan and Waterless Wednesday is not essentially Ramadan.
While the opposition continued, some people began to adapt to a waterless campus. Because the water fountain was unavailable, a lot of students began to doordash water, leaving many empty bottles throughout campus. This increase in waste was intensified by the baby wipes brought for hygiene when students could not use the restroom. Faculty members were extremely upset by the students' actions and began putting anti-door-dashing-water and anti-bringing-wipes symbols on their classrooms and belongings.
Students raised concerns to the administration that wearing such symbols around the campus harms the learning environment, so the school promptly decided to ban the use of such symbols by teachers. Still feeling insecure about door-dashing water and drinking from plastic bottles, students asked for a plastic water bottle safe space where they could freely drink from disposable containers without risking cancelation.
As some students sought ways to change this new campaign, they split into those who worked within the system and those who worked outside of it. A town hall proposal was drafted, and after several long months, when even those who had proposed it forgot about it, a first meeting addressing the proposal was held. During those eight months, a group of student activists poured water in front of the main hall and commons and delivered their manifesto addressing the injustice of Waterless Wednesday, which was an exemplary—not merely proficient—demonstration of performative activism. And of course, these students wrote a college essay about this experience.
One day, a student proposed the brilliant idea that all students could bring a water bottle with the capacity to hold enough water for a day. Many students began to purchase large-sized water bottles and brought them to the campus. However, critics pointed out that not all students can afford larger water bottles and that this creates a problem of inequality. The DEIS department quickly replied that this is not a problem of inequality, but inequity, which are two starkly distinct concepts. After this integral clarification, the department decided to distribute single-use plastic-covered water bottles during DEIS day. The budget for the distribution contributed to an increase in tuition, although the announcement stated that the raise was primarily due to inflation.
Despite students’ protests, Waterless Wednesday persisted. The school used the day as a hallmark of Athenian environmentalism and an admission advertisement. After a few years, however, the administration suddenly and silently abolished Waterless Wednesday. Afterward, students could only speculate that the change was due to some administrative and logistical problems. Although the day was no longer implemented, the school continued to use Waterless Wednesday to advertise the school on its homepage. A student sent a whole school email addressing the false display by the school, and after a brief meeting with the student, the school decided to delete from the homepage the information about Waterless Wednesday, which disappeared along with any trace of the student who complained.
After its long history, the student’s email marked the tombstone of Waterless Wednesday as it vanished beyond people’s memory.
