If you ever went into the girls bathroom during any passing period you already know the experience. As soon as you walk in, there’s often smoke and plenty of other abnormal smells in the air. You are surrounded by your peers in what should be a clean and safe environment that involves the smokers and the innocent bystanders that are just desperately trying to use the bathroom before class. It’s a great time.

Let us lay out the scene for you; you walk in and you get hit with the smell of skunky smelling smoke, sewage, and also food! Typically, there’s a group of girls openly vaping, smoking weed, or canoodling on the bathroom floor with blankets. Bonus points if they’re eating breakfast, lunch, or snacks right on the floor as well! 

As the minutes tick on during the very limited passing period, quite a long line waiting for open stalls develops. To the annoyance of many, there’s always a group of three or four squeezing into one stall; while the actual activities they’re partaking in is unknown, one can only speculate by the telltale smells that are produced. When only half of the stalls properly lock and people are hogging the stalls, this causes anxiety for many and makes many people late to class.   

Now, these are our experiences, but we also wanted to get some feedback from other bystanders. We talked to a couple girls and they all agreed on the same stuff: “The bathroom smells horrible and no one has respect for others or even the bathroom itself.”

That information is true, but I think one of the most outrageous responses we got was “there was someone dressed in a full on hobbit or wizard robe singing loudly.” The bathroom situations have gone way too far. The bathroom is not a stage nor is it a place to gossip. 

While the singing and eating is just plain annoying, the smoking in the bathroom is the real matter. It’s a well known fact that the smoke from vaping and smoking weed is unhealthy. There are times where the bathrooms get so filled with that smoke that just standing in there for a minute causes headaches. If  someone is choosing to smoke, that’s their choice. Why should others have to be impacted by someone’s else’s choice that could negatively affect them? 

When people abuse the bathroom, it leads others who go for the purpose of it to be negatively affected, both physically and mentally. “When I see people smoking [in the bathrooms], I’m always worried that a teacher’s going to walk in and I’m going to get in trouble too because of guilt by association. But if I go to another bathroom, I’ll be late to class so I just stay there and hope for the best” another girl told us.

For many, the concern of guilt by association leads to students feeling anxious about using the bathrooms or downright avoiding them, which can become an issue for people’s health.

But in reality, maintaining and patrolling the bathrooms are not the students’ responsibility. We went to the administration for their input and feedback on what they think about the bathrooms and their plans for change. “We’ve hired more security to check on bathrooms during times of transition and are talking about [installing] some vape detectors in the future.” Assistant Principal Mrs Grimes stated when asked about the changes made.

When asked about the proactive plans that are in discussion, Mrs Grimes responded with some controversial feedback. The possibilities of shortening passing periods, no bathrooms during passing period, and taking doors off the bathrooms will definitely cause an uprise of emotions between the students, staff, and teachers.

While these are merely just ideas and not definite solutions, administration continues to advise the students who are impacted and concerned with the situation by giving them solutions such as going to a different bathroom or to contact administration immediately. Administration seems to be confident that these solutions are working well. “I definitely think we are catching more people.”

Despite administrations’ confidence, some students question the reality of this. For many, the bathroom situation does not seem to change. If anything, it is getting worse. Although the staff pops in once in a while, this does not seem effective as the perpetrators of these situations have learned to be more aware of adults presence and have learned to hide substances.

This is an issue we need to address. The bathroom is a place for everyone but it is ruined for the people that actually use the bathroom for its main purpose. It is not a smoke spot, it is not a cafeteria, it is not a sleeping area, and it certainly is not a place to get intimate with others.

Why should the girls who genuinely need to use the bathroom be forced to smell smoke and deal with the headaches that ensue after. We students at Victor should stand and try to make a change, not only for our well beings but for everyone else that uses the bathroom.