In recent weeks there has been an increase in destructive behaviors and vandalism of the boys’ restrooms on campus.
The continued defacing of the facilities has forced the Foothill custodial staff to lock many of the boys’ restrooms during the school day.
“The night custodians are the ones that actually clean the school, so they are the ones that have to deal with all that,” custodian John Foronda said. “If I find a mess I am supposed to lock the bathroom and instruct the boys to use the one in the B building where they are under closer supervision of the staff.”
According to Foronda, the disrespect has been a range of behaviors from littering to tagging.
“It’s mostly writing on the stalls and emptying paper products, like the toilet seat covers and toilet paper, and clogging the toilets with them. Last week we did have someone rip the entire soap dispenser out of the wall and empty it on the floor though,” he said.
In response, ASB representative Adam Braver has established a bathroom committee to help address and fix the issue.
“The bathroom committee will go around to FIRE classes and tell everyone about the problem. ASB is going to work hard to make people aware of the problem and of the ill consequences if the vandalism continues,” he said.
It has not yet been decided what the exact punishment will be if the vandalism does not stop, but possible options include closing all of the boys’ bathrooms that cannot be closely monitored by staff, and using sign-out sheets at all times.
ASB advisor Darcy Duffy, however, does not believe that they will have to resort to such drastic measures.
“I think sometimes students do things just on an impulse without thinking that it might actually do damage to the school, so hopefully just letting people know that it’s a waste of money and time for us will be enough to make them stop,” she said.
Principal Joe Bova agrees and believes that the problem will disappear by itself.
“I’ve been here several years and sometimes there will be a little spike in vandalism, but usually it just goes away because whoever is doing it just gets tired or they leave the school,” he said. “I think the staff takes pride in the professional environment we try to create for our students with our facilities and a vast majority of the students are respectful of that.”
“We all chose to go here so I think it’s only reasonable that we respect the bathrooms,” sophomore Paul Stockdill said.
Sophomore Shannon Galvin attended Buena High School for a semester of his freshmen year and recalls that the bathrooms were much worse there.
“You walk in and there is trash all over the floor, graffiti in the stalls and a lot of people don’t flush and it smells like smoke. It’s really pretty gross,” he said.
Freshmen Jimmy Byrne believes that the actions taken by the destructive students are immature and recalls similar events happening at his middle school.
“Once someone is in high school, they should realize that there is no point in vandalizing a bathroom,” he said.
Some males at Foothill are slightly more upset about the locked bathrooms.
“When you really have to pee, [walking to the B building] is like walking a mile,” sophomore Michael Morales said.
Senior Keegan Cole is also upset about the inconvenience.
“They are ruining my right to pee which is apparently now a privilege, and that is an abomination against mother nature,” he said.
Bova urges students to report any knowledge about the defacing to the administration.
“If anybody knows who is messing around in the bathrooms just come let us know anonymously so we can stop it because there are rewards for reporting vandalism and [vandalism] just makes things harder on the custodial staff,” Bova said.
