Using the school bathrooms can be an extremely uncomfortable, revolting experience. Despite the fact that they are already dirty, the difference between other school bathrooms and ours is that ours are broken as well. They are clearly failing to be maintained.
Although this is a pressing issue in our school, the custodians should not be blamed. At the beginning of the day when students start arriving, the bathrooms are clean, the soap and towel dispensers are full, and the toilets are flushed. By the end of the day, the bathrooms look like a warzone.
Graffiti in our bathrooms has also become increasingly common over the last few years. Last year, a threat written in the language hallway bathroom got district-wide recognition and caused fear among many students and families.
The school has tried to paint over the graffiti many times, but nothing seems to be working. Administration has no way of knowing what is going on in the bathrooms due to the fact that hundreds of kids go in and out of the bathrooms on a daily basis.
There are broken sinks, locks, paper towel dispensers, soap dispensers, and trash cans in many of the girls bathrooms
Not only does the overall cleanliness of the bathrooms pose an issue, but also the way the bathrooms were made and the destruction inside.
Most students can agree that the worst bathroom at Hickman is the girls bathroom in the English hallway. This bathroom has broken locks, broken sinks, out-of-order stalls, and is designed poorly overall. There is a minimal amount of space between the stalls and the sinks, causing traffic jams and frustrated high schoolers. With there only being three bathrooms upstairs, this bathroom is always busy, especially during passing periods.
Teachers are getting frustrated with students for being late to class or being gone for extended amounts of time in the bathrooms. This is partially due to the state of the bathrooms. Girls have to wait in long lines to use the bathroom and wash their hands because of all the broken utilities.
The destruction of our bathrooms needs to be stopped. Walking into a bathroom and seeing clogged toilets from kids shoving things down them, food and trash scattered across the floor, and broken sinks is not only plain gross, it also makes the bathrooms unusable.
Overall, this is a schoolwide issue that everyone needs to take accountability for. Students can pick up their trash, eat in the commons, flush the toilets, and wash their hands. Administrators could also help by renovating or adding to the bathrooms for the benefit of students and teachers.
“You would never go into someone else’s house and break off a paper towel dispenser, or rip the toilet seat out and no one would want that if that was our house, right?” Hickman athletic director Jack Rubenstein said.
