Because of repeated vandalism, Milton’s male student population has been limited to the use of one bathroom for much of the school year. Each time the other four male restrooms are reopened, incidents seem to continue.
Neither the administration or the student body can pinpoint who is vandalizing the bathroom. The vandalism included engravings of inappropriate words, damage to property, broken soap dispensers and other destruction, according to High School Assistant Principal Mr. William Campbell.
Mr. Campbell met with all male students on Nov. 24 and appealed to them to display leadership and say something if they witness an incident.
There are no policies or rules on the number of bathrooms required to be open as long as one bathroom is available in the building, added Mr. Campbell.
“We want to try and reduce the amount of time students are out of class. We want to try and keep it under five minutes.” said Mr. Campbell.
Mr. Campbell said he doesn’t know if the situation would still be the same if problems ere happening in the girls restroom. He added that vandalism has not been reported in the women’s restrooms.
Mr. Campbell said that another class meeting on Dec. 3 consisted of him giving the students a chance to gather evidence against the students doing the vandalism. Since no one did, the bathrooms were closed again, he added.
Mr. Campbell said that some students entered the bathrooms even when locked. He said he first had “a conversation about it, then from there, the discipline flow chart. The discipline flow chart is detention, then multiple detentions and then in-school suspension then a meeting with parents and would go from there.“
Mr. Campbell said there’s no limit to closure times, but from his past experience, the bathrooms have been closed from a few days to a couple of months.
Junior Luke Mowery started a petition to reopen the bathroom,which he said collected 239 signatures, including two teachers. The petition was brainstormed and researched with his friends because they all decided “it’s ridiculous and getting out of hand” so he decided that he would start a petition, Luke said.
Luke said that the most surprising signature was one of the teachers because he expected to be waved off, but the teacher genuinely wanted to sign the petition and was in full support of it. “I don’t think the teachers would agree to open the bathrooms up fully, but to loosen the restriction. I have two teachers who signed it along with other teachers who have said verbally that they agree or would agree to have different solutions than shutting down the bathrooms,” Luke said.
Mr. Campbell said that even though he heard rumors about a petition to call for the reopening, he didn’t take that into consideration. He added that he would rather someone came and have a conversation with him rather than write a petition.
However, Mr. Campbell offered his own solution. “It’s all up to the students,” he said. “If they listen and respect the buildings, the bathrooms get reopened.”
