Taft Principal Mark Grishaber spoke out about the bathrooms and how it’s been an issue for the students. He was asked some questions to see what the students can do to change the amount of bathrooms not being open. “There are limited bathrooms because of the amount of vaping happening in the bathrooms and there’s not enough security to monitor the bathrooms either,” said Grishaber.
Assistant Principal Patrick Levins’ thoughts were, “The return to in person has been challenging. What happened was we experienced huge increases in washroom issues that went to a new level. Students were clogging toilets, tearing sinks off walls, destroying the paper towels dispensers, even taking toilet paper and stuffing it in toilets. We couldn’t keep up with it. It was extreme.”
Mr. Levins went on to explain that the school experienced a mass crowd of people entering these washrooms. He said, “And I’m not even exaggerating, 100 people in the washroom at once, plus you may have anywhere from 4 to 14 students inside one stall. It’s an unsafe environment and has continued for the last 3 years.”
When Security Officer Niva Cordero was asked about the issue, she stated that she believes that students should have a say when asked if she thought this was safe for students. She responded with, “Physically yes, mentally no.” She went on to explain that even though students will eventually be able to use the bathroom, students’ mental and emotional health matter too.
On another note, AVID teacher Ms. Rachel Miner had a hopeful view for students. She thinks it’s possible to reopen the closed bathrooms, but the school would have to form a type of community to not only voice opinions but also to stand up and say that this isn’t cool.
Staff weren’t the only ones in agreement. Michal Borda, Taft senior, stated that he would support a community that tells our peers to shape up and grow up. He is hopeful that if the student body can prove that they are responsible young adults, maybe Taft students will reopen all bathrooms in the school.
