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The School Newspaper of Placer High School

Hillmen Messenger

The School Newspaper of Placer High School

Hillmen Messenger

The School Newspaper of Placer High School

Hillmen Messenger

Takin’ care of business

Takin’ care of business

It is an undeniable fact that every human will need to use the bathroom at some point in the day. For students who spend around seven hours of their day at school, their need to use the facilities will usually end up with them in a school rest room.

For a student at Placer High school, that trip to the “John” might leave them wishing they had gone before they left home.
While Placer is known for having a beautiful and well kept campus, some of the bathrooms reflect differently. Problems range from out of order stalls to broken sinks, and from busted stall locks to wet, sticky floors.

The worst bathrooms are in the English Hall. The girls’ rest room has four stalls; however, one is permanently locked, one cannot be locked, and two are usable but have wet and dirty floors. Across the hall, the boys’ rest room is no better: there is literally a hole in the wall.
“They are really gross and you have to watch what you are doing,” sophomore Taylor Heath said.

This is not the case for all campus bathrooms though. The cafeteria facilities are in better condition than any of the student bathrooms on campus. The bathrooms are pristine, with everything in clean working order.

When the issues about the bathrooms around campus are brought up, students are quick to point out the problems. It is not a coincidence that the lower traffic bathrooms are the nicest, and, considering they are “student rest rooms”, students do have to take some of the blame for both the dirtiness and the vandalism.

The boys’ math hall bathroom has been a major target of such vandalism, at some points forcing maintenance to keep it locked and out of order for male students. Yet, if the bathroom is clean when the custodian leaves, and trashed when he returns, then the culprit must be hidden within the student population.

So, while it seems unfair that many have to deal with the mistakes of the few, it would also seem unfair to blame the maintenance crew for every problem.
“Kids don’t take ownership for their own school” said Assistant Principal Steve Caminiti.

In addition, there are problems that are the effects of the daily wear and tear, including a broken sink, or a damaged stall lock. Problems like these cannot be pinned on single students, but rather on years and years of use.

For example, the boys’ bathroom in the locker room currently is without some doors. Whether it was caused by the students or not, privacy should be a priority.

“There are more important things, but at least fix the doors, for privacy, senior Logan Hansen said.

So the question is, where does student responsibility end, and basic maintenance begin?

If we want nicer bathrooms, it is going to have to be a joint effort. Students need to take pride in their campus, and take the initiative to alert administrators of the problems.

“We encourage students to report it to us, that way we know,” Caminiti said.

When bringing up the problems with the bathrooms to Caminiti, it was obvious that he was unaware of many of the issues. It is up to students to advocate for change and take the problems to the administrators themselves.

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