A place that is avoided by most and a pastime for others. A place that some people find appalling yet a safe haven for others. A place where many frequent at least once daily. The school bathrooms. Local art and incense can add quite the ambiance to the experience. Some days there might be toilet paper, some days there won’t be; sometimes the paper towels’ and the soap’s presence follow the same pattern. The White Station High School bathrooms are always a surprise.
Many students have found the school’s accommodations to be less than comfortable. Over a hundred students replied to a survey that was conducted on the bathrooms. These students were asked to rate the bathrooms from 1-5 stars, were asked which bathrooms were the best and worst and questions on their overall experiences with the restrooms.
The survey has found that the average rating of these bathrooms was a total of 1.55 out of 5 stars.
When asked what the best bathroom was, the Freshman building had the most votes at 36. The second most was for the first floor of the main building with 21 votes. 14 of the students replied that none of the restrooms were the best.
For the worst restrooms, the Main building had received 54 votes, compared to the 36 for the East Annex. And 21 of the students replied that all of them were the worst.
“Honestly, they’re all pretty bad,” Jackson Foster-Moore (11) said. “It’s not the janitorial services that are the issue, [but] rather the kids who vape or waste materials in the bathroom; some of the urinals are broken and the bathrooms are always locked.”
Many students have found the restrooms to be in unsanitary conditions as well as having vulgar graffiti. At times the bathrooms even lack paper products and soap.
“The toilet paper and paper towel dispensers are rarely refilled when they’re needed, the mirrors are either nonexistent or barely functional as mirrors, and if a good bathroom is locked you have to walk across campus and wade through a sea of people skipping class to vape,” Annie Hatley (11) said.
Many restrooms are often locked because of the inappropriate behavior of some students. All these factors can hinder students’ ability to take care of themselves.
“While the bathroom cleanliness is a very big issue, the worst thing I have experienced is when bathrooms are consistently locked,” Siri Larsen (11) said. “Having to walk to different buildings to use the bathroom is incredibly inconvenient, especially if you can only use the bathroom in between classes. Even when bathrooms are unlocked, a lot of people have to find a different hall or building to use the bathroom in because none of the stalls have toilet paper to use, either. I’ve often found that usually two out of the three sinks work, and most of the time there is barely any soap in the soap dispenser and no paper towels to dry our hands afterward.”
There are many factors that discourage students from using the restrooms. Students should not have to feel uncomfortable when they need to attend to their bodily functions.
“The bathrooms always being locked and/or crowded during breaks discourages me from taking bathroom breaks between classes, and even when I do try to go to the bathroom during class, I have to walk quite far to get to one sometimes,” Caleb Brown (12) said. “Especially when walking from the portables.”
The survey has revealed student’s opinions on the conditions of the bathrooms. These conditions have made many students unable to appreciate the bathrooms.
“The bathrooms at this school are the worst that I have ever seen out of the dozen schools I have been to,” Samuel Stokar (11) said. “Not to mention that 80-90% of them are locked. It’s something that the administration has to focus on and take action on.”
These difficulties hinder the student’s ability to learn and focus. This causes students to not take care of themselves when they need to due to the lack of available time outside of class. Students then spend more time waiting or looking for an available restroom during class time.
“The overall experience of a White Station bathroom is walking into a bathroom full of girls just standing around, two girls are coughing from smoking some substance, none of the stalls have toilet paper and nobody is actually is using it; if you need to use it, you’re [going to] have to wait for the rare time of nobody being in there,” Natalia Rodriguez (10) said.
The restrooms not only affect students’ experiences, but they also affect the teachers. Many of the teachers have to deal with students misbehaving in the bathrooms as well as skipping their classes to hide in the bathrooms.
“It’s frustrating that there aren’t clean and functioning bathrooms readily available to students and faculty.” Amanda Richmond said. “For staff in the East Annex, the only staff bathroom has been frequently out-of-order which means we either share with the students or run to another building. While I encourage my students to use the restroom during class changes, the ones closest to our classroom might be locked, full, or in unsanitary conditions. If students already have a long walk between one class and next, their available time to locate a decent bathroom is minimal. For some, they are stuck between being penalized for being late and being able to relieve themselves. While I understand why some bathrooms are set as “off limits” due to some students’ poor choices, it’s unfortunate that the actions of a few impacts so many others in being able to have access to a clean and stocked restroom on every hall in every building.”
Many of the issues that the students face are also caused by their peers. Some students do not know how to take care of public spaces or even how to respect them. A possible solution to some of these problems is the student body acting as they should in the restrooms, including cleaning up after themselves correctly.
“I feel sick every time I go in there,” Lorelei Zamore (10) said. “I don’t use the bathroom at school anymore. I’m scared of these bathrooms.”
