Letter to Editor: Restrooms Need More Attention

Dear Editor:

Every school day, thousands of kids roam the hall the hallways of NHS. This mean that hundreds of children a day are using various facilities throughout the school, including bathrooms. Now the bathrooms by the lunchroom, which also happen to be by the front mains doors for activities and traffic from outside sources, are clean and well kept. Most of the bathrooms, however, are less than sanitary and appears to have minimal attention or cleaning. Door locks not functioning, toilets not flushing, and the list continues. I want to be able to use a at least decent bathroom wherever I am in the building.

Bathrooms around the school could use some more attention. Not just the ones near the entrance, to appeal to people visiting the school, but the ones thousands of kids use everyday. For example some of the doors in bathrooms do not close completely or the lock is busted, forcing students to hold the door shut or hope no wandering person tries to open the door. Furthermore, the toilets are in dismal condition with seat hinges coming off and stained seats. It is not a only a matter of better cleaning of all our school restrooms, but more budget money is needed to upkeep such valuable facilities that we use all day.

According to Mark Cannon, junior, bathroom facilities are not under-par due to janitorial work, rather stating that he believes more budget money could go into the area of raising the standards of restrooms throughout the building. A similar comment was made by Zachary Schmall, senior, mentioning that he does not like the fact that only the restroom near the lunchroom is updated and the other ignored. He does not like the feeling of planning his day around not using an unclean restroom rather than having a well kept facility wherever he is in the building.

Students are not the only ones affected, however, Debora Zolkowski, a former aide substitute, remembers the poor quality of some of the restrooms and purposely planning her day around using the one near the cafeteria, which can be a huge annoyance and impedance to productive work for students and teachers alike.

Quality over quantity is a good rule of thumb whether is comes to schoolwork, chores or even restroom upkeep. NHS is a huge school with an abundant number of kids and teachers alike walking in and out of restrooms everyday, which requires a certain amount of money and work to maintain.

Sincerely,

Jeremiah Zolkowski, senior