A big issue has been arising at Franklin. As students jostle around the hallways throughout the day, some struggle to find an open bathroom. While rumors fly and pictures are shared, a scene of distress is captured, one of ripped-off sinks and graffiti-covered walls. Currently, many of the boys bathrooms are locked due to damage, and there aren’t enough open restrooms for the students who use them.
Property damage can be very frustrating and is a pattern at Franklin, where walls are sometimes tagged by graffiti and food is not picked up. This pattern of behavior found throughout the school is exemplified by the boys bathrooms, which have experienced extreme amounts of damage. This has caused Franklin to lock three of the seven boys bathrooms, in the main building as of Nov. 19, down from a peak of five closed the week of Nov. 12. How can Franklin students and staff work together to find a solution to this problem?
The correlation between the locked bathrooms and students’ academics lies in the interruption of class time due to the locked bathrooms. A passing period at Franklin is seven minutes and five minutes on tutorial days, which gives enough time for a student to get to their next class and stop in the bathroom or fill up their water bottle if needed. Now, it might take more time for students who use the boys bathroom to find an open one. When the bell rings, students must be sitting in or entering their class to be marked present. Besides the passing period, there are times in class when students can go and use the restroom; while teachers’ policies vary, usually students are allowed to be gone for no more than five to ten minutes, so as to not miss class time. If classmates who use the boys bathroom must walk around the school to find an open bathroom, it takes away from their academics. They miss class, work time, and instructions. Being out of class for so long can also cause conflicts with teachers, as it makes the students seem disrespectful.
Another side to the story is the stress and workload of the custodians. Franklin’s custodians do so much work to keep Franklin clean and tidy. Already deep-cleaning the floors and bathrooms, it should not be necessary for them to pick up after students’ messes or manage damage from vandalism. Food from lunches and random trash should be picked up by students themselves. As the boys bathrooms are being trashed by students, it’s the custodial team who has to paint over the walls and repair the damages. If students realized their disrespectful actions caused distress for custodians, it could change their behavior.
A senior at Franklin, Leaf McQuillen, describes the issue as unfair. He has noticed an increase in locked bathrooms “over the last couple [of] weeks.” When asked if the closures impacted his school day, he responded, “If I have to use the bathroom, it will take much longer to find an open one, which takes away from time in class, [plus] teachers have gotten mad about it before.” McQuillen believes the school should prioritize reopening the bathrooms. He also suggests taking action to ensure the bathrooms aren’t a hangout spot, saying, “Maybe [implementing] a vape detector could help [prevent] people [from socializing] in [the] bathroom.” McQuillen believes practices like this could put an end to disruptions in the bathrooms.
Franklin Business Manager Sonya Harvey, who helps run the day-to-day operations of the school, explains the need for the locked bathrooms due to damage. “The custodial team only locks a bathroom if it is not operational due to damage or if there is hate speech graffiti present,” says Harvey. Locking the bathrooms is a last resort. “The bathrooms on the second floor have been locked for a while because the toilets were damaged, with some even being ripped off the floor. Additionally, there are frequent clogs caused by items being thrown into the toilets, which can lead to flooding and cause leaks in the bathrooms on the first floor,” she describes. While the process of fixing the damages can cause delays in reopening, Harvey says administration is working with the district to “ensure the issues are being addressed and prioritized.”
Franklin understands the importance of access to bathrooms, and administration is “committed to maintaining that access,” explains Harvey. But as of recently, “some bathrooms have been temporarily locked due to vandalism, including graffiti” — damage that must be addressed. “The custodial team is working to repair the affected areas as quickly as possible, and we will continue to advocate for the necessary repairs to restore full access to all facilities.”
With both staff and students frustrated with the locked bathrooms, action needs to be taken.
Harvey explains that, “We all have responsibilities and a common goal: to keep our school clean and safe. I would hope that we can agree to love our school and work together — students should take care of the school and report any damage, and staff should do the same and keep pushing for repairs and more support.” We should be proud of Franklin and do our best to keep it clean. While the school year goes on, administrators are willing to push solutions up to the district and students can report damages in order to get them fixed. Locked bathrooms will continue if students continue to damage them.
