For the past few weeks, students at Cape Coral High School have been subject to bathroom lines and Silent Passes running well past the allotted five minutes. This is a result of bathroom vandalism. We at the Seahawks Eye believe that this vandalism needs to stop, as it generates a headache for both students and staff at Cape High.
It has become incredibly frustrating for both students and staff to see basic human privileges limited because of the action of a few. We should not have to wait in ten minute bathroom lines because only one bathroom is open in the entire school. Students need to hold each other accountable for their actions and end these ridiculous bathroom closures.
Each day has become a guessing game, which bathroom is open? Students have been repeatedly trying to track down the ones that are open and available for use. Oftentimes, there is only one bathroom open upstairs and downstairs respectively. This means a far longer walk to get to the bathroom, so it’s become commonplace for students to have to walk across the whole school just to relieve themselves.
Additionally, Silent Passes have been running for nearly ten minutes because of the additional steps. It’s difficult for a teacher to know whether a student is skipping class or just trying to find an open bathroom. On top of that, extensive lines both inside and outside of the bathroom are tiresome for the students who actually prefer to be in class learning.
Going to the bathroom during school has become a chore and closing the bathrooms is a necessary evil. After all, this is high school. It is unnecessary to cause such inconveniences for not only the administration but also the janitors who are already underappreciated.
The main problem with the girl’s bathroom is the writing that litters the walls inside the stalls. The bathroom walls have become a place to express commentary on drama, messages of inspiration, or for artists to showcase their new works. This has gotten to the point where administration has been forced to close the bathrooms in order to protect students who have been victims of name-calling and bullying.
The issue for the boy’s bathroom however is just what most like to call, “boys being boys”. The cause is immature teenage males with nothing better to do than cause more work for janitors. This has reached a disgusting extent, as there should be nothing that possesses someone to go through such lengths just to close the bathrooms for a week or two.
This is often misinterpreted as a joke, but it is not a joke for the people whose job it is to clean up after irresponsible high school students. As teenagers, one would think that we are perfectly capable of going to the bathroom and cleaning up after ourselves. However, some apparently do not have that ability and are incapable of going to the bathroom without “rebelling” against those who keep the school clean.
Such vandalism is pointless, there is nothing that should cause one to do such unspeakable things to our bathrooms.
Vandalizers of our bathrooms, we at the Seahawks Eye speak for the student body on this one, please stop the futile fooling around and give us back our bathrooms. If you want to be able to go to the bathroom in peace, encourage those you know to act now.
