Over the past two years, several MRHS bathrooms, specifically the boys’ bathrooms, have been subjected to being shut down and locked from days to weeks to combat the growing issue in the school of their misuse, but one question has been simmering amongst staff and students: Why do they continue to be locked?
One of the main reasons for the bathrooms continuing to be locked and being placed out of order is also the simplest: maintenance.
“I think I’ve seen the bathrooms more times defaced than clean,” senior Daniel Warner stated. “Paper towels piled high in the sinks, toilets unflushed, mysterious stains. It barely even fazes me anymore.”
It’s no surprise that school bathrooms aren’t treated with the utmost respect, but active vandalism has caused the ever-rising need for bathrooms to be locked to give time for the school’s janitors to clean them. From annoying hazards like moist paper towels left scattered across the bathroom floors and sinks, to blatant vandalism of the stall doors with permanent sharpies, the standard for cleanliness for the bathrooms have reached a whole new low. With the school bathrooms being in such poor condition, students have resorted to simply not going during school hours; and waiting until they get back home.
“I don’t even use the bathrooms in school anymore unless it’s an emergency, they’re so dirty that I would rather wait the whole day until I get home.” sophomore Daniel Ro mentioned.
The other reason for the locked bathrooms is the school’s problem with vaping, which as a whole has become a nationwide problem for youth, specifically targeting middle and high school students. Despite their claimed less addictive properties to normal cigarettes, many students have been using compulsively throughout the day, including in the unmonitored bathrooms in schools.
“A lot of the time, the bathrooms smell either pungent or artificially fruity because of the smoke, and there’s no in between.” Warner answered.
And when the bathrooms are reported to be smoked in, the school’s administration is forced to shut it down both for student safety and to find the culprit.
“When we get reports of the bathrooms being smoky, then I’ll go to lock the restroom, and I’ll talk to security,” Principal DePaula disclosed. “We then monitor the cameras during the general mentioned time to see who could have been involved.”
With the constant mistreatment of the school’s bathrooms, some of them are even being proactively locked to prevent messes that require cleaning.
“We lock the cafeteria bathrooms around 1st period because there aren’t any classes near that area and they go unsupervised, and we unlock them after about 3rd.” Dr. DePaula revealed.
The ill usage of the school’s bathroom does not only trouble the school and our janitors, it also serves as an inconvenience to other students who need them during the school day. And as this trend continues to rise, it’s important to remember to treat the school’s property with the same respect expected of others to treat one’s own, for the betterment of everyone involved.