Administration addresses vandalism at Samo
Ava Memarzadeh, Staff Writer
Samo has recently been faced with a pressing vandalism issue during this school year. Students have been caught not only vandalizing the bathrooms, but also furniture in the new buildings. Dr. Shelton and the custodians at Samo are struggling to put the pieces together after these acts of vandalism.
The problem began when students returned to in-person learning at the beginning of the school year. Daytime custodian Eddie Harris noticed that bathrooms were dripping with graffiti paint, especially in the Language Building and tennis bungalow bathrooms.
“Graffiti is just a part of it. Some people tear the faucets and toilets up, mostly in the boys restrooms,” Harris said.
In addition to the restroom vandalism, students have recently destroyed furniture in the Discovery Building. Samo Security Officer Mr. D has said he has seen the chairs with desk extensions dismantled by students.
Both Mr. D and Harris suspect that the vandalism problems at Samohi are due to immature underclassmen that were left underdeveloped during the COVID-19 lockdown. They believe that the students who engage in these acts of destruction are hoping to make a name for themselves and escape feeling invisible.
Principal Antonio Shelton is disappointed in students’ behavior and destruction of school property.
“The problem is the lack of pride in what it is that you have. It took 155 million dollars to build a school for you, and there is a lack of respect for other people’s space and lack of respect for the school,” Shelton said.
In order to combat this issue of vandalism, a new bathroom policy has been introduced. Students wanting to use the restroom are required to take a pass and sign a log including the time of departure from the classroom. This is done in order to track the times of students leaving the classroom and match it to when vandalism occurs. Teachers have slowly been introducing this policy for their students to follow.
Harris suggests that students have a time limit to spend in the bathrooms, and also to implement a buddy system to hold students accountable. Teachers seem hopeful that the new rules will reduce vandalism. Algebra I and pre-calculus teacher Kathleen Francisco-Flores believes that the rules will be effective.
“It’ll help prevent vandalism because it is a good way of monitoring students. If students are gone for longer periods of time, we can know and report it,” Franciso-Flores said.
However, not all students are convinced of the new bathroom rules’ effectiveness. Many, such as junior Maya Karni (’23), have reported that not all of their teachers enforce the rules and are not convinced that they will make a difference either way.
“I don’t think the new bathroom policy will have the effect that teachers are hoping for. Even if there are records of the times people use the restroom, it will be too difficult to pinpoint the acts of vandalism to a certain individual,” Karni said.
Staff urge students to report any vandalism in order to keep our school clean and preserve our resources.
Graffiti is rampant in Samo bathrooms.