Trying to find a usable restroom is becoming harder and harder at Central. On several occasions in the last few months, I have found myself wandering the halls for periods longer than 10 minutes, hoping to stumble upon a bathroom with open, functioning stalls. I’ve hiked up to four floors in one trip and gotten nothing. This kind of inaccessibility cannot go on. Something must be done.
The lack of available stalls is due largely to student activity. About 50% of the issues, I have run into when looking for an open restroom are clogged toilets. They have been stuffed full of assorted garbage, vape cartridges and toilet paper, overflowing with wet trash. I have no idea what compels students to do this. I imagine it is seen as a joke, but it’s hard to find the humor in it when you desperately need to use the restroom. It’s also immensely wasteful and causes unnecessary work for custodial staff.
Really, there are trash cans right outside, why must the chip bags go in the toilet? Sometimes, this clogging results in leaking as well, causing toilet water to spill onto the floor and form large puddles, making entire restrooms incredibly dirty and uncomfortable, if not unusable.
Some stalls are occupied by students skipping class, although this is less of a problem. While attendance issues are prevalent, skippers do not create as much of an impediment to other students as those who destroy the bathrooms. If they are taking up a stall, most are kind enough to leave when asked. Smoking and vaping are issues to be sure, but ultimately the effects of students loitering in the bathroom are not as lasting as those of restroom vandalism.
Other stalls are unavailable for genuine maintenance reasons. I’ve encountered stalls without doors as well as permanently closed ones which have simply been out of order for months. And of course, the new addition and gender-neutral bathrooms remain locked most of the day.
These factors limit the ability of students to simply use the restroom. With only two stalls in each men’s bathroom, I find that at least one of the two is usually compromised by fourth block. With only one stall available in each, bathrooms are more quickly occupied, and students who cannot find a stall are forced to wander even longer. This takes time away from class and is, of course, unhealthy and uncomfortable for students.
It’s hard to determine how to stop this kind of behavior. Obviously, we can’t just lock up all the bathrooms like we did with the new addition. Limiting the number of available restrooms further would only worsen the situation. And it’s difficult to effectively prevent student vandalism since it cannot be predicted or traced easily. Furthermore, we can’t rely on custodians to clean it up immediately; they do enough work around the school as is, including unclogging the garbage from the toilets after hours. Really, I don’t know what can be done by administration or teachers. Bathroom sweeps, which may clear the restrooms periodically, cannot prevent students from going into and trashing them during the block. And too much security could raise privacy concerns. Their efforts are clear, but still there exists a problem.
So instead, I’d like to appeal to the students at Central High School: please act your age. This is ridiculous. People need to use the restrooms – don’t keep them from doing so. The short-term humor of vandalizing toilets is quickly outweighed by the struggles faced by students every day. If consequences cannot effectively prevent this behavior, I hope that perhaps empathy will. Think, for just a second, about who might be affected by your choices in the bathroom. Our school community cannot afford to suffer these immature pranks forever. Please, consider others before you do something stupid.
