Harding High School has a serious problem. A… toilet-breaking problem?
Students inflict damage on bathrooms across the building every week, ranging from cracked toilet seats to random trash like juice boxes clogging the drains. Sink bowls break, toilets overflow and flood the room, and soap dispensers are damaged—no doubt you’ve tried to wash your hands only for the soap to be stuck inside its container.
For whatever reason, vandalism seems to run rampant throughout the halls of Harding—or rather, the bathrooms—and the damage is considerably worse than last year. Harding custodians who’ve worked here for a while seem to believe this is the fault of the current Freshman class. “I know Grant has been a hot mess for a while,” says Head Custodian Jeff Reidenbaugh of similar vandalism issues there.
From his time working as Head Custodian at George Washington Elementary, Reidenbaugh concludes that vandalistic behaviors in children carry through to their teen years if not properly stifled. “Usually [vandalism] never seemed to be an issue in my [Pre-K to 2nd Grade restrooms],” Reidenbaugh states. “And then you get up to [the 3rd to 5th Grade restrooms]; that’s where I would have a lot of sayings written on walls…they would write things on the mirrors…and [paper towels are] just an instant clog in the urinals.”
Back at Harding, the sabotage is much more appalling than these elementary schemes. Many times this school year alone, several bathrooms have been gated shut due to toilets flooding them with water. How is one toilet enough to flood an entire bathroom, you ask? Reidenbaugh explains that some kids, mainly boys, have found a way to break the toilets so that they spray water without stopping. In addition to this, sink faucets break, toilet seats snap in half, and toilet drains clog with juice boxes, milk cartons, pencils, and hygiene products. (It is beyond the comprehension of this writer as to why a person would attempt to flush a milk carton down a toilet, much less multiple.)
It is worth noting that in order to fix massive clogs like this, the entire toilet needs to be taken off the wall so that the garbage inside can be properly removed. This, as you might imagine, is a laborious and repulsive process, as human excrement can easily build up in the pipes.
“[Fixing the bathrooms] is an expensive issue,” Reidenbaugh admits. Toilet seats cost about $25 apiece, while toilet stools currently go for over $400, and they don’t come fully equipped. Custodians have to add a spud for $12, a back gasket for $18, a flush diaphragm for $20, and a vacuum breaker for $10. “You can see it’s gonna add up pretty quick,” Reidenbaugh continues, “Plus my time, and you know, time is money.” So far, Harding custodians have replaced a grand total of 30 bathroom accessories since August.
It’s also an overall annoying issue for the student body. Freshman Alaina Messmer states, “Now all of the students are seen as untrustworthy,” and fellow student Lyric Guider brings up the problem of nearby bathrooms being closed, forcing students to walk to a much further one. Indeed, much of Harding’s student body is frustrated with the amount of times they’ve walked from class to the bathroom, only to find that it’s gated shut and unavailable for use. Reidenbaugh notes that it would be extremely unfortunate if someone were to have an accident due to circumstances like these, but that locking the gates on restrooms is crucial to allow for proper clean-up. He even says, “[One bathroom] is left closed right now to try to send the message that…we need to take care of this place.” In other words, the moment students stop vandalizing restrooms is the moment restrooms can stop being locked down.
Harding Principal Dr. Bolden asserts that “90 percent of our kids do the right things, we gotta figure out how to get those 90 percent help police the 10 percent.” Many students of this 90 percent are frustrated with the few vandals who are making it difficult for others to simply use the restroom. “We’re in high school; we shouldn’t be childish. People need to learn how to act their age sometimes,” says Jaelyn Wilson, a student at Harding. Bolden, well aware of Harding’s vandalism problem, warns that anyone caught defacing school property will be suspended for 10 days with a recommendation for expulsion, and that the school “will pursue restitution or charges to the fullest extent.”
An important first step towards stopping vandalism at our school falls on Harding’s students. If a student sees someone destroying school property, they should report this behavior to a staff member as soon as possible. Understandably, sometimes this can be scary as people might consider it “snitching” and get angry. But as Reidenbaugh states, “Numbers stand together,” and in this way a self-governed student body like Harding’s can overcome many challenges.