Steering clear of the unhinged restrooms

The constantly cluttered bathrooms on both floors. The disturbing writings on the walls. The broken locks. The empty menstrual cycle quarter holders. The broken toilets. Empty toilet paper holders along with the smell that makes your day worse. The ‘no vaping’ signs are invisible to everyone. Meanwhile, the janitors try their best to clean the bathrooms, just for it to become dirty for most of the day. This is the drama students at UACHS go through when they want to go to the bathroom. Although the nurse is next door, it’s embarrassing to walk into her office and ask for menstrual cycle items. Another thing that is embarrassing is asking a neighbor for tissue when there is no more in your stall. 

The importance of keeping the bathrooms clean is to keep germs from spreading around the school and also for our convenience. Students should be able to use the bathrooms when they need to, without fear of students gathering or other unnecessary things. Senior, Alexa Lucius, says that people are not clean when in the bathroom.

“People do not know how to clean up after themselves in the bathroom,” said Lucius.

Most girls in the school are complaining about the lack of sanitary wipes, the broken stalls, and the smell of the bathroom. Using the restroom can be a hassle, because of the useless stalls. Lucius feels that people may be too comfortable and forget it’s a public place. 

“People think they are still at home and are messy,” said Lucius. “Another issue is that we also all need sanitary pads which not everyone has access to.”

Getting new locks on the stalls is a must, in order to have privacy. With the ‘no lock’ doors, there are only four stalls which can be used. Two stalls have a broken toilet flush handle on the first floor. On the second floor, one stall has a broken lock and another has a broken toilet flush handle. This all causes more traffic in the bathroom. In the afternoon, the restrooms are locked to cause less student gatherings during class. 

The bathrooms are not a place for conversation. They are a place that you go to relieve yourself, wash your hands and to deal with quick personal issues. Gossiping, damaged stalls, hanging out, and lack of hygienic products leads people to avoid the one place that should be a haven for comfort. Until these issues are resolved it may be best to steer clear of the restrooms.