Bathrooms are a crucial part of our everyday lives. They are used to freshen up and make one more comfortable throughout the day, especially throughout a six hour school day. But, when a bathroom is not clean, or even operable, it makes it difficult to achieve these goals. Unfortunately, John Dewey High School experiences this situation. However, if we bring enough attention to this situation, it can possibly be fixed.
As a senior of John Dewey High School, I´ve had my personal experiences with the bathrooms, as well as my own opinions as to what can be done to fix the situation. Although I´m not one to rely on the bathrooms frequently, I do find it challenging for me to actually use the bathroom, knowing the conditions they are kept in. Even when it comes to the bathroom policy, I don´t bother to ask because I know there are at least 3 students waiting already. By the time those 3 students go and come back, the bathrooms are already closed.
¨I feel that the bathroom policies are unethical and problematic to all parties¨ said Alex Le, senior of John Dewey.
With Alex identifying as a female, her main concern was of course, the female population. “Especially the female population, sometimes they need to go immediately or they can get health complications.” Lee stated. Since there are many concerns about the female population, what about the male population?
“I completely disagree with the bathroom policy. I find it pointless. The bathrooms are bad enough, and having them set specific times makes them worse. Kids pile up outside the bathroom at those times and with one bathroom being open, it’s really annoying.” Said Max Moskalyuk, senior of John Dewey.
Regardless if these students are male or female, this seems to be a universal complaint. It’s like a constant trend. Additionally, when it comes to the cleanliness of the bathroom’s, there is an influx of complaints from students as well.
“There are certain times during the day where I’ll walk into the bathroom and there’s no toilet paper in certain stalls, there’s no paper towels to dry our hands and sometimes there’s even no soap at the dispensaries at the sink.” said Le.
There have been many reports that the boys bathroom on the first floor deals with more than just an absence of soap, paper towels and toilet tissue. But there are stalls that have doors that don’t lock, let alone have a door itself.
“I do agree that the bathrooms are quite disgusting. There’s a stall where a door can’t even shut, and there’s a stall where there’s not even a door installed! So it’s like how can we possibly use the bathroom when the first step in bathroom privacy is having a door?” said senior Ryan Huang.
If there are countless issues with the way these bathroom’s are kept, and the policies that are in place, why hasn’t anything been done about it? Is it because the issues haven’t been fully brought to light? The question looms for many.
“I think it’s important to keep the policy the way it is, the first 10 and last 10 [minutes], because we want all the kids to go to their classroom first so they’re not marked late, they’re not lingering in the hallway and that you want less traffic in the hallway so you make that rule for safety purposes” the Assistant Principal of Safety and Security, Mr. Getreu said.
It’s easy to understand where Mr. Getreu is coming from when it comes to the safety of the school, as that is his job. To make sure that all students and staff are kept safe from the moment they walk into the building, up until the moment they walk out of the building.
“The concern about dirtiness… that means it’s the students who are doing that, so maybe we have to have a town hall on cleanliness and on what to do and not to do in the bathrooms right, I think that should be next steps” said Mr. Gretreu.
What can these next steps possibly entail? Is it possible for the bathroom policy to be reduced to the first 5 and last 5 minutes of class? Will students of John Dewey expect a town hall about bathroom cleanliness? Will the boys bathrooms finally have working doors? These questions may not be answered right away, but those questions can definitely be answered, hopefully in the near future. As a school community, students must commit to being a part of the solution.
