Picture this: it’s the middle of class, and you have to go to the bathroom. You get up, grab the pass, and make your way to the nearest bathroom down the hall; except upon arrival, you are met with a yellow sign informing you that “this restroom is out of order due to a plumbing issue.” The sign provides a list of the bathrooms that are currently available, however, they are all on the opposite side of the school. It’s about a two minute hike to the open restroom, where you then must wait again, because unfortunately, only one of the many stalls is actually stocked with toilet paper. Finally, you are able to use the bathroom and return to class, but what was supposed to be a quick trip took nearly ten minutes, and valuable class time has been lost.
This inconvenience is what many students at Groves High School have been dealing with recently. Bathrooms are either closed or in poor condition, a huge hassle to students, but why does it seem like nothing is being done to solve this problem?
“It’s annoying,” said an anonymous Groves student. “I missed so much class the other day because I had to run around the school and find an open bathroom.”
Groves has a total of five main bathrooms for students to use, not including the unisex or the ones reserved for special events (also known as the “airport bathrooms” to many Groves students). All of them were redone last year, some changes including new lights, tiles and countertops. Unfortunately, they have not been taken care of very well by students since then— they seem to be just as dirty as they were before the remodel due to people leaving garbage out, wasting toilet paper and flushing things down the toilet that shouldn’t be.
The toilet paper issue is a big one. Some students think it’s funny to flush wads of it down the toilet and clog it, or wet it and throw it at the walls. These students messing around affects everyone, as wasted toilet paper is often not restocked for weeks, leaving bathrooms without the necessary supplies. This causes long lines in restrooms, as students wait for the single open and functioning stall.
“Someone tried to flush a Monster can last week and it broke the toilet,” the anonymous student added. “You’d think high schoolers would be a little better than that, but I guess not.”
Using the bathroom at school should not be so difficult. Groves High School is ranked #12 out of 786 public high schools in Michigan, and the fact that students don’t have an adequate amount of functioning restrooms is a concern. Students and teachers alike are hoping that in the near future, all of the issues with the bathrooms will be resolved, but for now, the problem remains. The Groves community needs to work together to keep our school facilities functioning, clean and accessible to everyone.
