Student bathrooms, renovated on the fourth floor two year ago, don’t look so new anymore. Look inside the bathrooms and you’ll see vandalized stalls, trashed toilets and soaked floors. Depending on the time of day, the bathrooms also lack paper towels, soap and even tissue paper.
In the boys bathroom, recurring problems also have included a faucet not working, graffiti and miscellaneous items found in toilets and sinks.
The uncleanliness of the boys and girls bathrooms concerns students.
“It’s dirty,” Brian Michaca, a junior said. “I see mad pee on the floor.”
He added that the bathroom’s condition is bad and many students leave without washing their hands because soap and paper towels are sometimes unavailable.
Senior Alexander Lyons described the bathroom as unsanitary. “It smells bad and people are actually nasty,” he said. “They don’t know how to flush the toilet.”
“I think they could fix one of the sinks because it doesn’t work,” he said.
The boys’ bathroom isn’t the only bathroom that faces these issues. The girls’ bathroom has similar problems.
“It’s kinda dirty, Mia Lappe, a junior, said. “Girls leave their pads and they don’t clean up after themselves. It stinks there and toilets are clogged in certain stalls.”
Kyana Valerie, a senior, also has experienced bathroom woes. “They’re nasty and stink,” she said. “There was a time where only three of the stalls were working.”
“It’s hard because you have to wait in a long line, missing class time and work and the smell is just unpleasant,” she said.
Emalee Charles, the student council president, thinks students should own their mistakes. “I think that students should take accountability because the messy bathrooms are no fault but their own,” she said.
Even the bathrooms used by staff members aren’t always in great shape.
“I appreciate having it available and I appreciate the school for maintaining them and having them open,” Anthony Walker, a teacher said. Also it’s not far,” said. He added that the teacher’s bathroom was busy.
Wilson Lantigua thinks the bathroom is alright and it works, but he said there are a lot of insects in there. Also, he said some people go in the bathroom to brush their teeth, brush their hair and wash up which leaves water everywhere.
The women’s staff bathroom sometimes runs out of essential supplies. “The paper towels run out really quick, no soap and people bring their own soap and other things for themselves and others,” staff member Roxanne Guzman said.
News of the bathroom problems caught Principal Gregory Fucheck by surprise. “It’s terrible,” he said, adding that he wished someone had brought up the subject sooner so the problems could have been fixed right away.
“That is a renovated bathroom,” he said. “It’s completely new from two years ago, but I will go to contact the custodian to see what can be done.”
Letting administration know about problems can help. When Mr. Fucheck first head about the problems in the boys bathroom, he took pictures and showed it it to the custodian. “He handled it pretty quick,” Mr. Fucheck said.
Mr. Fucheck says monitoring who is going and and out of student bathrooms can also improve conditions. And when new problems crop up, Mr. Fucheck wants people to come to him or email him, so the issue can be quickly addressed.
The news staff asked the Lehman Campus custodial engineer for comment but didn’t receive a response.
