by Jackson Pelz
You have an awkward step as you walk to the bathroom. You know exactly why: you have to go. Bad. You’ve been needing to all day. One of your teachers has finally given you a bathroom pass (which are much harder to obtain these days with the new school policies), and you feel as if you don’t go in the next few seconds, you will explode!
The walk down the hall seems to be longer than it has ever been before. You rush from one end to the other, watching the blue lockers zoom by out of the corner of your eye. You get to the door and push it open, quickening your pace.
Now in the bathroom, you rush to the nearest open stall. The door creaks open and slams against the wall. A wave of relief rushes through your body; the idea that all of this will be over soon is a thought almost too good to be true. But before you are able to go, you look down, and suddenly a different feeling washes through you: disgust.
After all that time and effort of begging your teacher to go and getting that grammar lesson of “I don’t know, can you?”–it has all been in vain. Someone forgot to flush. And that’s why your day is now ruined.
Why is it so hard to flush the toilet? At Brevard High School, there are five different bathrooms in the main building: one in the media wing, one in the language wing, one in the band wing, one in the science wing, and one in the CTE wing. If you were to visit one of these bathrooms at any time, there would be a 20% chance of waste still soaking in its new home, and a 40% chance of the bathroom being completely trashed.
People are always saying how this country is going down the toilet, but if some people still don’t know how to work one, how can they make that analysis?
Another problem concerning our bathrooms is that some students still think it’s okay to flush whatever they want down the toilet.
“Kids will flush paper towels down the toilet and it clogs it up,” said Anna Brown, a custodian. “Its very frustrating, and makes my job a lot harder. Not only that, but then we have to block off that bathroom, and students have to find another one to use.”
Trashing the school bathrooms not only makes jobs harder but affects all of the students and faculty as well. Flushing the toilet is a very easy and simple task, and if you are a germaphobe and don’t want to touch the handle, don’t worry. Hand sanitizer has not been banned from school grounds yet. Washing your hands is also an option.
Even if you are proud when you look down, keep in mind, nobody else wants to see that.