The school bathrooms have been an issue probably since forever. If they don’t smell like smoke or skunk, then there’s toilet paper everywhere, usually no soap, and full of students having a meeting in the bathroom. Surprisingly there’s rarely a clogged toilet but that’s mainly because no one actually uses the stalls for their intended purpose but instead to smoke weed, vape, and sometimes smoke cigarettes. These are probably issues that won’t ever go away and will continue to get worse with every new generation. Every new generation of teenagers that comes gets more and more curious and willing to try every new drug that comes out, or they’ll try an old drug that their parents used to do when they were younger. It’s not unreasonable to assume that there will be a point in time where our children’s children will go as far as to use hardcore drugs that are comfortably fit even smaller containers or maybe even tablet sized/as big as a Tic Tac.
Pasco High (and every school in the district) can either do something about these bathroom issues if they’re present, get used to teens abusing drugs and things that will eventually make them want to use harder substances, or actually do something about it. The very sad but considerate thing that they could do is put some sort of ventilation that constantly filters air throughout the room to get rid of the smoke smell and replace it with clean air. But if that were implemented that would prove that schools are okay with students using drugs and aren’t as concerned as they say they are with the health of their students.
Student Jaydin Bazan says this about the bathrooms, “Honestly, I rarely use them but when I do the towel dispensers are always broken so I have nothing to dry my hands with. I’ve only had that which does suck because then you just have wet hands and have to shake your hands violently, and I guess last year all the urinals were not in use for like a week so you had to go across the hall. I’ve only used the bathrooms in the Band/History hallway by the auditorium but I heard that sometimes there’s no soap in that bathroom and the sink water in the cafeteria bathroom is boiling hot.”
Alexander Barajas is known by students and some teachers as AB, he is currently a student at Pasco High and he had these things to say about the current topic, “Something I like is that they work and I can use them whenever somethings I don’t like is that they’re always full, sometimes there’s no soap, and sometimes there’s pee on the toilet seat and there’s no seat covers.”
Another student at Pasco High Efrain Iñiguez threw in his 2 cents by providing this short statement, “You’re asking the wrong dude. I’ve used those bathrooms a total of 5 times and only when I need to go bad, they are pure axe.” (I’m not sure if I’m allowed to use his original words because we are at school but I’m sure you know what word would be there if not for axe).
If all schools across the country were funded accordingly, they could install machines in bathrooms that help monitor the type of fumes that would be emitted by any kind of drugs that you have to light. They could scan for different fumes in the air inside bathrooms and when scanned a meter fills up with a specific type of gas emitted from cigarettes, e-cigarettes, weed, and any other substance that needs to be lit to use. Of course farts, for example, emit fumes but that is why way later in the future when these machines are actually made, they could have filters that only scan for fumes and gasses emitted by drugs and not our bodies. They would have to scan fast enough for an alarm to be triggered and then it would be sent to any security staff in the area through radio or any other transmitting device so that they can go into the bathrooms and lay down any punishment that is legal for drug use inside of schools. Now, with a filter in place and this meter in place, this would be, in my opinion, one of the most beneficial solutions to the drug use problems that schools have had ever since school and drugs were a thing dating as far back as the 1920’s.
