Triton’s bathrooms have been notorious for their poor condition and misuse. However after a recent assembly featuring a speaker who said change in school bathrooms  is necessary, it opened up the question: should the bathrooms be renovated?

Bathrooms all over the building are in poor condition. Some are fully functional and others are actually missing a toilet or sink from the wall.

Over time, many of the bathrooms have fallen apart and now students use their conditions to further damage them or to reportedly smoke or vape. Some students want a renovation, however will it just lead to more damaged property and a wasted budget?

“Two weeks ago we had a school council meeting that discussed  the state of the bathrooms and it was agreed that something needed to be done,” says Triton’s principal Mr. Timothy Ruggere. The board brought this matter up to the head of maintenance, Mr. Christopher Walsh. Improvements and more are in the works, and Ruggere hopes that by renovating the bathrooms for the students it will show more trust in the students and hopefully they will be more respectful to school property in other parts of the school.

On the other hand, English teacher Mr. Joe Colbert says that he doesn’t believe the bathrooms will be treated properly if renovated:

“I think the bathrooms deserve to be renovated but the people don’t treat the property well” he said. He also said he believes that even if the students would treat the remodeled bathrooms properly, that the school has higher priorities than renovating the bathrooms. Many other sections of the school are also damaged due to time or misuse.

On the contrary, history teacher Ms. Lisa Herzl believes the bathrooms should be renovated.

“Yeah, we have like 700 something students here, there is definitely something somewhere that says they should be up to standard.” Herzl’s classroom is directly across from the downstairs girls bathroom, so when she smells vape or smoke, she has to go check things out as part of her job. Her opinion on vaping in the bathroom is that it is inconsiderate to the others in the bathroom who are there to actually use the bathroom then to go back to class.

Senior Sam Scibetta says that the bathrooms aren’t in great condition and that in one bathroom, there are only two working toilets and often almost no toilet paper. As for vaping, Scibetta says she does not mind the vaping, because between that and the perfume that is used in the bathroom, it leads to the girls bathroom smelling nice.

It is a common known fact that students in desperate need to use the bathroom will  use teacher bathrooms, instead of the student bathrooms, as they are in much better condition, more private, and cleaner than the student ones. Ruggere and other faculty are aware of this, and despite complaints from teachers, they understand why the students do it.

“I would definitely use the teacher’s bathroom if I could. They are just nicer to use and cleaner,” said Scibetta.

At the beginning of the year an assembly was held featuring a speaker who had opinions about giving students chances to prove themselves, which he believes starts with renovating the bathrooms. He said that he believes that if students were shown trust, they would rise to the occasion and be respectful of school property.

Ruggere agrees that the speaker made a point, and that if you show trust in the students, the students will show trust in you. The bathroom renovation is long overdue and hopefully it will lead to a healthy relationship between the school and its students.