James Bowie High School prides itself in many extracurricular activities such as fine arts, academics, and sports, so you would think that the state of the buildings and bathrooms had to be nice and neat, right? Wrong. Walking into a school bathroom after spending time already outside makes me feel like I am walking into an outhouse. There are many aspects of the school bathrooms that overall make not only myself but many students at Bowie very uncomfortable while in a very vulnerable place. 

At first glance of a school bathroom, the dark and musty aroma of the bathroom already feels uninviting and scary. There are many problems with school bathrooms that not only include the students but also just involve the general atmosphere of a bathroom. Although the janitors at Bowie take very good care of our school, the reckless behavior of the students makes having a clean bathroom quite a challenge. There are usually puddles of water all over the floor, sometimes people spread unsanitary things over the walls or on the floor. Some people flush things down the toilet that don’t need to be flushed such as feminine hygiene products. This will clog the toilets and leave a mess for the next person. It is really gross and I wish people would just be respectful.

The overall privacy and amount of people in the bathroom are challenging to move through especially if you really need to go soon. During passing periods students only have 6 minutes to use the restroom, yet there are multiple hoards and groups meeting and taking up the bathroom which makes people either late to their class, or not go at all. Then if they wait to go, students will have to wait an additional 15 minutes before actually going to the bathrooms again. Once in there, some bathrooms don’t even have stall doors and the gaps make it so you can see people staring at you in the mirror. Not a pretty sight to see. 

Although the whole devious licks thing is over, the aftermath has not been dealt with. There are still missing soap dispensers, missing paper towel holders, and some people steal other classes’ bathroom passes. There are tables that can be used to put down the pass, and one time I put the pass down and someone stole it and left. How does that benefit anyone and now I have to get in trouble? Some students just hold their pee all day until they are home because they don’t want any odd encounters, which sucks because a bathroom is just that. A place to pee. I don’t understand why students take this time as an opportunity to hang out, smoke, steal, and overall just make it a terrible environment when everyone in the building will have to use it eventually. Bowie needs to improve the overall state of the bathroom so students feel safe, clean, and have an easy experience when needing to use the restroom.