Student Bathroom Issues Need To Be Addressed

Jaliah Jada Vargas, Opinions Editor

There has been a big change in bathroom usage since we have gotten back to school. Mainly it’s the quality of the bathrooms that have really been affected. If you have been in the stalls at any point you can see the drastic changes. The graffiti, the writings on the walls. But even yet, boys in the girl’s bathroom and vice versa. The bathrooms are supposed to be watched in order to make sure kids aren’t skipping or doing anything disruptive, but there are times when there is no supervision. Because the two connect right in the middle this can lead to all kinds of problems. One of the biggest issues, especially in between classes, is that the bathrooms are usually filled to the brim. Most often kids meeting up with friends or just hang out.

¨I feel that a lot of students congregate in the bathrooms during class time or the few minutes between classes. It makes it very hard to be comfortable when there are 15 students in there lounging around without a mask on,” said senior Emily Phillips. 

That isn’t the only problem with the bathrooms. As we know, there is typically a teacher that is sitting outside the bathroom watching kids go in, but sometimes even then, since the bathrooms connect, a student can easily just walk to the other side. This just creates an uncomfortable environment for everyone, as people like their privacy. When people are just hanging out on their phones, it’s still, just lacking a better word- weird. Again since the bathrooms connect right through the middle, it is essential that they are supervised to make sure no uncomfortable situations happen. Still, there are multiple accounts of boys in the girl’s bathroom and girls in the boy’s bathroom. Alyza Drollett agreed, “I feel like men (of all sexualities, trans men, and anyone using he/him pronouns) should go in the male restroom as well as vice versa (women of all sexualities, trans women, and anyone who uses she/her pronouns.) I feel if a gay woman went in the male restroom that would be uncomfortable and it should be the same vice versa.” Even in my own personal experiences, I’ve seen boys in the girl’s bathrooms. Even when there are a ton of girls in the bathroom there could just be a boy waiting for someone. This definitely shouldn’t be happening. At all. 

In our bathrooms, there are lots of written messages in sharpie or even carved into the stalls. This in turn ends up leaving messages or drawings for everyone to see. While this may not seem like a big deal, it ends up just making the bathrooms look bad.  Even worse is kids clogging toilets and ruining bathroom supplies like breaking soap dispensers. This just creates a huge inconvenience for those who have to use the bathroom but end up having to wait or have difficulties due to the lack of supplies. We as a student body need to have better respect for those around us and the building. There are schools in which you have to have someone with you at all times when you go to the bathroom due to the fact that they lost their privileges. A lot of us don’t realize it but we have a really nice school with lots of freedom. Let’s not get to the point where we realize we took it for granted. Clogging toilets and breaking the bathrooms is not what we come to school to do.  Our janitors shouldn’t be dealing with the work of not only keeping the school clean but then having to deal with all of the ridiculousness that goes on due to the students. People think it’s funny to throw an entire roll of paper towels in a toilet and then make a mess of the place. Of course, there isn’t much that can be done because every time they add new paper towels to the bathroom, the next day the thing is open and the paper towels are all over the floor or even worse sitting on the toilet.   

Overall, I feel as though frequent bathroom checks are needed as of right now. While us having privacy is nice, there are certain things that have to be stopped. As there are too many instances where either the supplies are wasted, stalls are ruined, or just too many people are in there at once. So we should work together before we end up with no bathroom privileges at all.