Each year the LA and AD bathrooms age, the students’ respect for them decreases. As soon as you walk into the bathroom in either building, you’re greeted with messes created by a handful of students. If anything, it’s become a place for students to do everything but what it’s there for. Some students think that the solution to this problem is to remodel the LA and AD bathrooms.
The LA and AD buildings are the oldest buildings on campus, being built in 1888. Even the principal doesn’t know when the last time the bathrooms have been renovated which means it’s been a while. Because of this, students feel like they can treat those bathrooms any type of way.
The first time I went into the AD bathrooms, it grossed me out to the point that I swore to never use that bathroom again. I saw crumbs, food wrappers and used feminine products all in the same corner of the stall I went in. Whenever
I had to go to the bathroom during my Spanish classes, I’d walk to another building.
Every time I go into the girls bathroom in the LA building, it’s anything but clean. Sometimes it’s so bad, to the point where I leave the bathroom and walk across campus to the commons. On a normal day, the worst is that there’s pee on the floor and the towel dispenser is empty. However, there have been days when food and used pads and tampons were on the ground.
Most students use the bathroom during passing periods, often receiving tardies to their next classes because of the extra time it takes to inspect each stall and make sure to choose the most decent one. One of my friends complained to me about how long it took her to find a clean stall due to some students’ poor actions.
A huge part of the bathroom’s cleanliness problem comes from the students. Most of the messes made in there are from students after all. “I go to the bathroom multiple times a day and the messes gradually get worse,” says Rebecca Magana, a senior at SRHS.
When Faith Pu’u, a senior at SRHS, got asked about the LA and AD bathrooms, she explained that they’re the “dirtiest bathrooms on campus.” She along with many other students agree that the bathrooms have become a filthy environment. “I often use the STEM bathrooms…even if it’s a trip,” says Pu’u.
A lot of students hang out in those bathrooms which causes most of the messes. It makes the ideal hang out spot to “goof off” during class periods as teachers are in their classrooms and administrators don’t patrol those areas as much as the commons. Students take this as an opportunity to make the bathrooms a huge dump. Azeem Munshi, a junior at SRHS, says: “there’s always people in there crowding together so you can’t actually use it.” Not only do they dirty up the bathrooms but students also hog the area, making it harder for others to use them.
Most students can agree that the bathrooms in the old buildings are disgusting and unsanitary. It gets to the point where students would rather go across campus to the newer buildings like STEM or the commons just to use the bathroom. While volunteering for the annual eighth grade tour, Alex Macias, a junior at SRHS, took his group of 8th graders through the LA building. As they walk past the boys bathroom, Macias says: “Don’t go to those bathrooms, they’re gross,” to the eighth graders. He made sure to emphasize how vile the bathrooms are to students who don’t go to SR; he doesn’t want future students to find out the hard way.
Remodeling the bathrooms isn’t an easy solution. Tim Ryan, Senior Director of Strategic Facility Planning at San Rafael City Schools, says that remodeling the bathrooms would take about a whole school year. With the four main bathrooms closed for remodeling, it could bring more harm than good. “It would be a horrible idea because we’d have limited bathrooms,” Pu’u says. Yes, the bathrooms can be remodeled one by one but it still leaves room for mishaps.
My concern is that this would lead to a start of a cycle. If the gendered bathrooms in the LA and AD bathrooms get remodeled, it leaves the commons and the STEM bathrooms open for new messes. Unless a miracle happens and students magically stop messing up the bathrooms, there’s nothing stopping them from treating the commons and STEM bathrooms like the LA and AD bathrooms.
Are the LA and AD bathrooms due for a remodel? Yes. However, the bathrooms shouldn’t get remodeled until students can clean up after themselves. Otherwise, other bathrooms will replace the LA and AD ones, making an endless hellhole of a cycle..
