Words of wisdom on bathroom walls

By Zoe Vikstrom,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–

In the past, graffiti has been considered a public inconvenience and destruction of property. However, graffiti in the girls’ S-wing bathroom at Davis High is looked at in a different light.

The S-wing graffiti includes many positive messages written by students. Many DHS girls want to continue the tradition of writing on walls as a way to spread advice and encouragement.

Graffiti vandalism is against the law, and at DHS the penalty for being caught can range from a warning to a suspension. But with the privacy of bathroom stalls, many people feel free to write whatever they want to share.

One inspirational message written on the wall says “smile, you’re beutiful [sic]” and a list of advice includes “never say no to opportunity,” “never regret” and “live in the moment”. Other writers write thank DHS for lessons learned during high school. “Thank you DHS for teaching me to love myself,” Meaghan Murphy wrote after her graduation in 2014.

Sophomore Mimi Miyamoto appreciates the positivity of these messages. “Even though writing on the school stalls violates school property, I feel like these positive messages are a good way to inspire others and spread positive energy around the school,” Miyamoto said.

Cooper Johnson, a junior from Da Vinci who takes French 3 at DHS, agrees with Miyamoto. She thinks that the graffiti helps some students focus and unwind during a stressful day at school.

“The bathroom is where girls recuperate, as dumb as that sounds,” Johnson said. “So I think that if girls want to write messages on the walls, who cares?”

While certain quotes provide encouragement for readers, there are also quotes that have a negative affect. Recently things like “666” and “Bloody Mary” were written on the wall.

“Those types of quotes can be disturbing to read,” junior Carina Hinton said. “No one wants to see something like that written in a bathroom.”

Juniors Fiona O’Keeffe thinks people have gone overboard with the amount of quotes, and many have lost their meaning.

“It was really cute at first, but then people just started to write whatever they felt like,” O’Keeffe said.

Since many students appreciate the graffiti on the bathroom walls, they are worried that it might be painted over. “If the school is against graffiti, I think they should be more concerned about the negative comments,” Miyamoto said.

Unfortunately, one wall in the stall has been painted over recently.