The students of Loy Norrix have to use the bathroom on a daily basis. Walking into the bathroom to a foul smell, to find the only open stall flooded with toilet paper questioning if you’re gonna use the bathroom that day. The bathrooms here have no mirrors, sometimes no soap or paper towels. Toilet paper balls decorate the ceiling and there are garbage bag-covered toilets. Just imagine avoiding using the bathroom all day because of these problems when they could be solved. 

Both the boys’ and girls’ bathrooms are not clean and each has gross characteristics students tend to avoid. Students walk in and see their bathrooms destroyed with things all over the floor and even worse, bodily fluids on the toilet seats. 

Students at Loy Norrix give their opinions on how they feel about the school bathrooms. Senior Owen Davis and junior Naysa Quinones believe the bathrooms at school should be more clean. 

Quinones, who uses the female bathrooms here at Loy Norrix, avoids them at all costs. 

 “The bathrooms at Loy Norrix are absolutely disgusting, and they could definitely be cleaner,”  said Quinones. 

As for Owen Davis, who uses the male bathroom, he believes they aren’t the most pleasant, but they are still usable.

 “I don’t think that they’re terribly dirty, but public restrooms in general are not overly clean and considering the treatment of Norrix bathrooms, I think they are much worse than normal. I usually feel uncomfortable using them and try to touch as few surfaces as possible,” said Davis. 

Administrator Alexander Hill at Loy Norrix agrees that the bathrooms are in the condition they are because of how the students choose to mistreat them, and to change the condition of the bathrooms starts with the students. 

“I think that it’s unfortunate that we can’t keep our restrooms clean and usable on a daily basis,” said Hill. “I think the students feel the same way, that they can’t just go into a bathroom and use it without them being dirty or trashed.”

Some students at Loy Norrix agree that if the bathrooms were nice or redone that they would be respected by the students more. While others disagree and think that regardless of how the bathrooms are students will trash and destroy them as a joke. 

“I think that if the students and the staff worked harder to make a change and made the bathrooms nicer, students would work harder to keep them clean,” said Quinones. 

As for Davis he feels as though no matter if the bathrooms are clean or dirty, they will still be mistreated. 

Davis said, “I don’t think that the bathrooms are mistreated because they’re unclean, I just think that students want to destroy them because it’s fun, and they find amusement doing it.” 

Students can all agree that the bathrooms are gross, and they would want to see them be cleaner, while Davis disagrees about if students would turn around, and respect a cleaner bathroom. 

Students should not feel like they need to avoid the bathrooms all day because they’re mistreated. Students need a clean environment to relieve themselves from bodily functions. They should not have to put going to the bathroom on pause because of how trashed and unsanitary the bathrooms are. 

Avoiding using the bathroom for long periods of time can not only be uncomfortable but can cause actual health problems as well. According to the website Medical NewsToday, the top three effects of holding in urination are pain in the abdomen, the risk of urinary tract infections, and kidney stones.

The students of Loy Norrix demand cleaner bathrooms because we spend most of our time in school. Having to avoid using the bathroom because of its cleanliness is inconvenient for students and their well-being.