Horrible bathrooms: whose fault is it?

One of the first things freshmen learn after entering Samo, along with the location of their classes, is that whenever possible, one should wait until they get home before relieving themselves. One peek inside the bathrooms in the History, Business or any other older building will verify this. From trash-bag covered toilets to floors two-feet high in wet paper towels, it’s clear it’s best to hold it. There is one escape from these horrors: the I-House Bathrooms. A beacon for unlucky students, it provides a safe space, in contrast with the alternatives. That is, until recently. After multiple accidental fire alarm pullings, administration decided to put a definitive end to the excessive juuling and locked up the bathrooms, with a note from Shelton pinned to the door affirming that this was intentional. This has sparked an outrage from students, who were left with no comfortable, hygienic bathroom options. Of course, this is preferable to the constant alarms that happened routinely every day for upwards of two weeks. There are many factors at work here, but the majority of the problems are rooted in a minority of students. These students are to blame for all of the trash strewn about, lockless stalls and many of the clogged toilets and broken sinks. (You would think that by now high school students would know how to use a sink, but apparently not.) However, the fact remains that the student body should maintain the right to a semi-decent bathroom. The minority of students who find it hilarious to steal the stall locks should not determine the majority’s basic right to defecate without awkwardly holding the door shut with one hand.However, the belief that administration is hanging the students out to dry is farfetched. Bathrooms are cleaned often, no less than any other janitorial duties. What is administration supposed to do beyond constant bathroom upkeep? “The bathrooms are cleaned every single night. Every single night. You all ask us to do something about them: we did it,” Dr. Antonio Shelton said.If the students as a body would prefer bathrooms not currently housing multiple undiscovered diseases, students as a body should put in a bit more work. Sure, it’s admin’s responsibility to fix all broken sinks, toilets and locks. But when students constantly swing on stall doors, intentionally clog toilets and find creative ways to break sinks, it becomes clear there’s really no point. By investing more money in bathroom upkeep, Admin would be flushing their money down the toilet.Administration has little blame in the state of Samo’s bathrooms. Students alone use the student bathrooms, and maintenance staff cleans the bathrooms more than enough. Broken sinks, when fixed, simply break again. What’s the solution then? Students learn to fix the problem ourselves. We pick up paper towels, stop breaking everything and stop juuling in the Innovation bathrooms. If, all of a sudden, the bathrooms became and remained spotless, the broken toilets, sinks and locks would stick out like a sore thumb. Only then can students begin to blame administration.