I think all boys would agree that the men’s restrooms are in a sorry state. Through the years we’ve lost doors, access to soap, paper towels, and even mirrors, to the point that some of our restrooms are just a hall of barren toilets. How did we get to this point? And why is nothing being done to fix them?
A restroom is a place where you should be allowed to let your guard down, and as the name implies, rest. This is not much of a possibility in most of our restrooms however. The problem is most apparent in those that are closest to the English and world language classes. Lining the walls are over ten urinals side by side with nothing in between them. It makes no sense to have this many, especially considering that there’s usually more people vaping or fraternizing in these restrooms than actually using them. To add onto the lack of privacy, many of the stalls are missing doors This is mostly due to the boys restroom hangouts in which doors are torn down, either in fights, or just for entertainment.
“In the beginning we used to replace them, and they would just get ripped off again. The ones in the commons do get replaced, but it costs too much to keep repairing and replacing all of them when they’d just get ripped off again,” Principal Bill Powers said.
Either way, these bathrooms are some of the worst in the school in terms of privacy.
Along with the lack of privacy that the restroom congregation causes, the sheer amount of discomfort it is to try to relieve yourself while in a bathroom full of people hanging out and smoking is just unbelievable. Getting shoulder checked by four different people while you’re just trying to get to the urinal is ridiculous. The worst of all of this is the commons bathroom during lunch. Why these people choose to spend their time in the dirtiest place in the school is something I will never understand. I find myself going out of my way to avoid all of the restrooms mentioned so far just because it’s not worth the trouble most of the time.
The state of our bathrooms can’t be discussed without also discussing the scarcity of soap and paper towels. Using the restroom only to find you couldn’t even wash your hands if you wanted to only adds to the pain. This can mostly be chalked up to the restroom dwelling students using the soap and paper towel dispensers as a form of entertainment, and to the general waste of these amenities by all students. When rolls of paper towels are needlessly gone through on the daily, it makes it hard for the janitorial staff to keep up. This was at an all time high during the devious licks trend of 2021.
“Doors got ripped off, soap dispensers got ripped off, people peed in the soap bags. It was terrible then because it was every bathroom. The trend was nationwide so because of that there was a delay in getting them replaced, even the soap. There was a national supply chain shortage so we had no soap for a little bit,” Powers said.
It’s relieving that this behavior has at least calmed down since then, but the problem is far from being solved.
It may be hard to believe for our newcomers, but there was a time where each and every bathroom was outfitted with its very own mirror. This gave students a perfect chance to check their hair and outfit through the day to make sure they’re looking sharp. Now the only mirror left for the boys resides in the lonely restroom located next to the girls locker room in the weight room hallway. (At least this bathroom is always empty and quiet despite only having one light bulb) These mirrors were slowly removed from all the bathrooms until just this one remained.
“I don’t know if all of the bathrooms even had them originally, but I know when I came here the commons bathroom and the one upstairs did. They’ve been broken over time and removed, some vandalism, some by accident,” Powers said.
These broken mirrors pose a safety hazard because of the shards of glass that will inevitably be messed with by students.
“That’s why we have to have them removed and we just don’t get them reinstalled,” Powers said.
Truly, the source of the declining state of our bathrooms is due to the abusive and ungrateful attitudes that many students have towards them, treating them like a dump to hang out in and destroy. If it wasn’t for the irresponsible actions of a few, many of these problems wouldn’t exist. This is a difficult, and almost impossible problem to address. For now we’ll all just be left longing for the days when people used the restrooms as intended.
