Illustration By Tristan Ing
Restrooms Licked With Damage
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With missing soap dispensers, tampered faucets, and flooded urinals, the restrooms are in disarray. The word is out: school restrooms provide an inadequate service for the students. However, these expectations placed on the school are unrealistic. No one could have predicted the recent “lickings” enacted on restrooms—it is a matter of respect, or lack thereof towards the school. Despite the damages, the school is doing their best to improve the restrooms. In addition to regular maintenance, more custodians are out fixing the restrooms. Regardless of how it may seem, the school is hard at work trying to fix these issues with the restrooms at present. The school is handling the restroom situation very well despite student damages.
It is obvious school pride is nonexistent these days, though there always has been a lack of respect towards the school around campus. This, combined with the latest TikTok trend “#lick”, just makes the whole situation even worse. Students are breaking sinks and stealing paper towels for clout, while the school scrambles to get a hold of the situation. On Friday Sept. 17, all of the boys’ restrooms, except L-building’s, closed down for maintenance issues. Now, L-building has a missing soap dispenser. The lack of available restrooms and cleaning resources in available ones only further fuels student disrespect towards the school. A vicious cycle is created from the school’s inadequate services, perceived inaction by students, which later breeds more disrespect towards the school.
There are legitimate concerns over the school’s methods of tackling the restrooms, such as their inefficient and ineffective repairs. For example, P-building has had a urinal closed for maintenance since 2019. However, that urinal specifically, has had maintenance issues for quite some time, which means that repairs toward it have become so costly and ineffective, that the school has decided inaction is the best solution. Everything has a breaking point, so if the “licking” of property persists, the school will most likely cease any further maintenance operations, and wait out repairs until the damages subside. While it may be seen as dismissive inaction by the students, the school has no good reason to try and renovate the restrooms. It is unnecessary work that will just get tampered with again, and as productive as burning money, especially for a school with a finite budget.
Even if the school has the money and resources to remodel a restroom every year, students’ “feedback” and “gratitude” will make the school think otherwise. The school cannot keep cleaning up the students’ messes if they know it is just going to get dirty again. It is just how it goes. The quality of campus restrooms are a reflection of the students who use them after all.
