The Leonian Reviews: The Bathrooms!
by Ean Soh and Juliana Pascual
Leonia High School students of all different grade levels, classes, and teachers, share one unifying experience: bathrooms. Often, Leonia High School’s bathrooms fail to meet basic standards of cleanliness and utility. Leonia High School’s substantial vaping population frequent bathrooms in between or during classes, while bathrooms themselves are, at times, filthy or non-functional. The faculty and staff, who enjoy the convenience of their private bathrooms, may be completely ignorant of these issues, whereas students experience them on a regular basis.
Vandalism has created persistent and seemingly unsolvable problems in Leonia High School’s bathrooms. Litter and graffiti dirty facilities
and chronically clog toilets. More damaging forms of vandalism include the emptying of toilet paper dispensers as well as the destruction of sinks, mirrors, soap dispensers, and stalls.
Girls’ bathrooms are no less liable to be vandalized. Pads and tampons are wasted and their containers left on the floor. Markers are used to deface walls, mirrors, and doors.
Natalia Kazbanov ‘25 commented on the difference of the bathrooms from her freshman year compared to her junior year. When asked regarding her experience with students vaping in the bathrooms, Natalia expressed dismay. She revealed having to frequently avoid bathrooms that are overcrowded and reeking of smoke, especially during lunch periods. What once was supposed to be our bathroom privileges has turned into a major inconvenience and a hassle for students who simply want to do their business in peace.
Although she believes there is still room for improvement, Natalia also stated that “considering all the positive changes that happened these past three years to the girl’s bathrooms, I think our school is going in the right direction.” When asked about the school’s consistent issues regarding vandalism in the bathrooms, she noted a drastic difference. She said, “in freshman year, the bathroom walls and stall doors used to be covered in drawings and writings, but the majority of the bathrooms are now clear of vandalism. We finally have proper individual trash cans for each stall, instead of random buckets.”
Indeed, there have been notable improvements in recent times. As of this school year, the GirlUp club has successfully worked to implement the new legislation requiring free-to-use pads and tampons to the girls’ bathrooms. The gender neutral bathroom (although indefinitely closed) is also a new, positive development.
It is a good thing for the whole Leonia High School community to see that people care and are investing time and resources to make a difference in our bathrooms, but for real progress to be made, more needs to be done by the administration and student body to address the vandals and vapers that are holding us back. For now, we hope to see GirlUp club and other students’ efforts continue to better Leonia High School and our bathrooms.
