Imagine you’re in a rush for something important, but you need to use the bathroom. You end up waiting 10 minutes in line before you can get a stall, and to make matters worse, the stalls’ locks are broken. This is a reality that many students at Pasco High School face daily, and on top of that, teachers often get upset if you arrive late, even when it’s not your fault.
Many students have reported issues with the bathrooms at PHS, which prompted me to gather opinions from both students and staff about the ongoing problems.
**What Students and Staff Think**
Most students believe that the school bathrooms need significant improvements. For example, Lilia Armenta, a PHS student, described the bathrooms as “raggedy,” since people often leave used paper and trash everywhere. She expressed that the bathrooms are too small and suggested, “the school should add more stalls and more bathrooms in the wings because there’s no girls’ bathroom in A Wing, and the gender-neutral one is always closed.” This makes it challenging for her to find a bathroom where she feels comfortable.
Another student, Julia Zoto, complained that the bathrooms are “old and dirty.” She remarked, “The school bathrooms would be better if they added more stalls since the girls’ bathrooms always have a long line, with only about three stalls available.”
Numerous students at PHS have voiced their frustration about arriving late to class due to the long lines in the bathrooms. It feels unfair to be blamed for tardiness when the school hasn’t decided to accommodate the large student population by adding more bathrooms.
Even teachers have noticed the poor conditions. Lindsey Godin, a teacher at PHS, described the bathrooms as “stinky and messy.” She noted that, prior to the current broken, dirty, and crowded facilities, “the bathrooms used to be worse a few years ago.” It seems that attempts to improve them in the past have stalled.
The situation is not limited to the girls’ bathrooms; the boys’ bathrooms are also in poor condition. Marshall Cardines, another student at PHS, described their bathrooms as “trashy.” He believes “the school should remodel the bathrooms because the conditions are unacceptable for anyone to use.”
Jorge Vasquez added that the bathrooms are “overloaded” since he always has to wait in a long line during lunch because there are no closer bathrooms available. The lack of stalls contributes to the constant crowding and unavailability of facilities.
It’s not just students who are complaining; even school security personnel have voiced their concerns. Mark Figuroa, a well-known security officer at PHS, characterized the bathrooms as “messy” and stated that adding more bathrooms “would benefit more students, as it would keep them cleaner and help students avoid wandering around looking for a stall.” When I asked about the issue of students being late to class, he remarked, “It’s not fair for students to be late just because of the lack of available bathrooms.”
Substitute teacher Isidro Guerrera also pointed out that “the bathrooms are sometimes very messy, with toilet paper everywhere on the floor.” He agreed that “the school should add more stalls to eliminate the lines that form with students waiting for a stall.”
Overall, students, teachers, and security staff at PHS all agree that significant changes are needed for the bathrooms. They believe that renovating the facilities according to their suggestions would improve the situation for everyone and alleviate the troubles currently faced in the school bathrooms.
