While school vandalism is common across American high schools, the recent destruction to CHS bathrooms is unprecedented. Sinks have been torn out, supplies have been stolen and soap dispensers have been destroyed; all caused by students for reasons yet to be determined.
As the search for those who caused the vandalism is still under investigation, these circumstances have now led to some bathrooms being closed down and bathroom policies becoming stricter. Junior Soren Davis thinks that the closings now make going to the bathroom less convenient as open bathrooms are sometimes farther from class.
“It’s affected how long it takes me to go to the bathroom and disrupts my classes,” Davis said. “[The students who destroyed the bathrooms] think it’s funny and don’t think of the consequences.”
While time is one of the aspects of student life impacted by the vandalism, this isn’t the only problem that has arised. Junior Nathan Allen says that missing supplies can also sometimes be an issue.
“When I need to wash my hands there’s no soap,” Allen said. “There’s [also] no toilet paper or paper towels sometimes, but that doesn’t affect me too much.”
The school has already taken some steps to prevent this from happening in the future, such as monitoring the bathrooms and recording more meticulously when students leave to use it. While it’s uncertain if this will be an effective plan, Davis feels that there is an extent to what can be done to prevent students from vandalizing school property.
“I feel like it’s more of a problem with the kids [personal lives],” Davis said. “So I don’t know if the school could change anything aside from what they’re already doing with monitoring the bathrooms and doing routine checks inside.”
The new policy requires that teachers only let one student go to the bathroom at a time, making more students have to wait for their turn. Allen thinks that it works well as a system, despite it taking longer for students to be able to go to the bathroom.
“It hasn’t really bothered me that much with going out in time or anything,” Allen said. “Since it’s only one person at a time I have to wait a little bit, but that doesn’t affect much.”
Students have mixed feelings regarding these new bathroom policies, but several feel the new system is a necessary implementation to put a stop to defacement from happening in the future. It’s unknown if the new policies will entirely prevent this, however, and only time will tell.
“I think [the new policies are] needed to stop the vandalism,” Davis said. “But I just think it’s really annoying for people that aren’t doing anything.”
