Bathrooms at Davis High could be improved, some say

By Claire Williams,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

The bathrooms at Davis High are a frequently visited destination. In the morning, the girls’ bathroom near the P wing was clean, but lacking toilet paper in some stalls. By noon, the bathroom had been littered with dirty paper towels, water splashes, and toilet paper had been crumpled on the floor in the stalls.

Students, staff and faculty all use the same bathrooms throughout the entire school year. Over the course of the beginning for the 2016-2017 school year, students and staff have noticed that not all the bathrooms are clean, safe and pleasant to use.

Sophomore Makena Wahl believes that the girls restrooms must be improved. “I think there’s definitely work that could be done to the bathrooms, such as fixing the stall doors that don’t lock or close,” Wahl said.

Not only does Wahl have issues with privacy problems that come with the stall doors not closing, she also believes that the overall quality of the restrooms needs significant improvement.

According to Wahl, there is a constant lack of soap and paper towels, and the mirrors are entirely trashed. Some of the restrooms do not even have mirrors. During the rainy season, there are puddles that collect throughout the bathroom, making it harder than normal to use the facilities.

Throughout the stalls in the restrooms on campus, there are immense amounts of vulgar and possibly offensive graffiti, such as rude words, name-calling and crude drawings which could possibly make students feel unsafe and are difficult to remove.

A janitor, who requested to remain anonymous, also agrees that that the restrooms need improvement. Because some of the restrooms on campus are quite old, there are cracks throughout the floors, making them hard to clean properly.

Although the janitors clean each bathroom every day, they continue to see the pleasantness of the restrooms decreasing. “They have never changed the feminine hygiene trash cans for as long as I’ve worked here,” the janitor said. “They never change the bathroom doors, either, or the mirrors. There are other problems I have reported and they don’t pay attention.”

Sophomore Ethan Ramos had a different experience with the restrooms at DHS. “The [boys’] bathrooms are always pretty clean. Messes will always be cleaned up by the next day,” Ramos said.

Ramos does not feel that the boys’ restrooms are in any urgent need of improvement. “The bathrooms are stocked with whatever you need,” Ramos said.

Laurie Williams, the athletic department secretary at Davis High, has had issues with the cleanliness of the stadium restrooms. “We’ve had a few incidents of people making a mess in the bathrooms during games,” Williams said.

Although there are differing opinions on the cleanliness and pleasantness of DHS restrooms, ASB president Sam Goidell has plans to improve the restrooms for the future.

One of Goidell’s main campaign platform promises was to provide an improvement in the cleanliness and pleasantness of the school’s bathrooms. “I felt like it was a pressing issue at Davis High at the time, and I believe it’s still an issue today,” Goidell said.

During Goidell’s time as ASB President at Davis High, he has worked with Principal Will Brown on a regular basis on tackling the restroom issues, such as the lack of toilet paper and paper towels.

Goidell and Brown are working on the larger scale to improve the school’s restrooms overall and to make the rest of the school’s environment feel safe, clean and pleasant.