Bathroom Bouncers

Smoke clouds, stolen soap dispensers, and half-eaten school lunches create an unappealing scene in the bathrooms here in the high school. The blue-walled rooms have received a lot of attention lately as they have caused many problems. For the last few years, Triton has been trying to think of new ways to prevent the wrongful use of the bathrooms. 

Teachers have now been asked if any of them would be willing to be paid twenty dollars an hour to stand outside the bathrooms to watch those who go in, but so far no one has volunteered.

 High school students have been manipulating the bathrooms and using them for vaping sessions with friends and pulling off so-called “devious licks.” Devious licks are part of a viral 2021 TikTok trend in which students post videos of themselves stealing, vandalizing, or showing off items they stole primarily from their schools, typically from bathrooms. The bathroom issue has not stopped there as there have been open bottles of alcohol found in the trash. Scott Brennan was asked about what will happen next.

  “Yes… eventually (we) will have a teacher monitor for each period…” said Brennan.

As eating, drinking and vaping continue in the bathroom, many students feel uncomfortable even stepping foot in there.

“I should be able to walk into the bathroom and not be afraid to get caught due to being guilty by association,” said freshman Emmerson Marengi.

In most instances, the girls’ bathroom has been more problematic than the boys’, students say. Both are equally as bad, since there has been urine found on the floor of the bathrooms. 

The instances of vaping have also gotten worse. Teens have found any way possible to use the bathrooms as smoke rooms. Many hide in the stalls to avoid teachers who come in. Students also have been drinking alcohol in the bathroom and throwing away the empties into the school’s trash. These antics have become a problem that more and more students are getting involved in. 

More people have been gathering in pods of 10-12 people to eat lunch in the restrooms as well. The remains of the food are being flushed down the toilet and clogging the septic. The school has had to contact the plumbing company more than once this school year to flush out the system. More money has been put into that this year than anything else. Mr. Kelley has shared his concerns with the bathroom.

“We are in talks of putting doors on the bathrooms to minimize the usage of the bathrooms so we can lock them when we need to,” says Kelley. 

In the past two weeks, each grade has been spoken to about how to treat the school with respect. In the girls’ bathroom on the second floor, girls toilet-papered the stalls. Toilet paper was strung throughout the openings and through the cracks to create a decoration above the toilets. 

“What has been going on has been ridiculous, the bathroom should be a place where you should have the most privacy but because of those who don’t know how to properly use them, we as students have to have a teacher standing outside of it,” said senior Maddie Hillick.

Students and teachers have shared a lot of their anger about the bathroom not being used to its true purpose. It has caused many disruptions throughout the school. Triton is hoping to fix the problems that have been going on and hopes for better usage of the bathrooms for the rest of the year and in the future.