“Closed due to vandalism,” reads the sign on the upstairs men’s restroom, as it has for months. With one fewer option, the list of vacant and usable restrooms can dwindle fast. The newest, larger dual in the South commons — my third favorite room in the building at this point — stands out as the only men’s restroom to have two stalls. That matters when it can now take three or four tries to find a usable restroom, which is a serious time drain when I’m in the middle of a class or have better things to do during break or passing time.

 But Ryan — what makes a restroom unusable? Allow me to recount some (some), of the most memorable examples I’ve experienced since after Winter Break, with a fair degree of censorship on a few.

An entire roll of paper towels — somehow extracted from the dispenser — in a toilet, sauce packets and lunches destroyed across the room and a litany of unspeakably unhygienic vandalism on the stall walls and facilities are quickly becoming the norm. If those scenes aren’t enough to deter me, there’s also the threat of having garbage thrown at me over stall walls, as I’ve experienced, or being otherwise bothered or harassed by other students. Vaping, which was absolutely unavoidable my sophomore year, has thankfully seen a significant plummet after COVID shutdowns.

I don’t think it’s unfounded to say that men’s restrooms are generally not the cleanest or most hygienic environments, but the sort of scenes that crop up regularly now far exceed laziness or anything that can possibly be excused or brushed aside. There is a clear mindset among some of us that it is alright (or at least, inconsequential) to disrespect shared spaces and, therefore, everyone who uses them. There’s no apparent gain in this behavior – just the knowledge that other people will have a worse day. Our janitorial staff, of course, put up with more than I’ve seen, and to think it’s their responsibility to deal with whatever inconvenience these students flippantly choose to cause is a despicable mindset.

Earlier in the school year, the middle schools especially were plagued by serious and costly acts of destruction or theft in bathrooms due to a TikTok “trend.” Breaking things as a trend seems like reinventing the wheel to me, but it was a moment in time, nonetheless.

 That trend has since evaporated, but I think it’s emblematic of some collective attitudes regarding school property and shared spaces that many seem to carry in our schools. That attitude is one of disrespect — actioned disrespect. It’s an attitude of disrespect that’s the status quo in all men’s locker and restrooms, which exists to be disruptive and hateful against everyone else. There’s a constant state of stress over a potential negative encounter in these spaces thanks to this behavior.

I asked a senior friend of mine about her experiences in the TuHS women’s restrooms to compare them with mine.

“People there are generally respectful, or at the very least keep to themselves. Although sometimes people are somewhat inconsiderate when it comes to taking up space,” a senior told me. 

“There’s usually things broken and left in the sink or sanitary products thrown randomly on the floor. Other than that there isn’t anything visible,” she said when I asked her about her experiences with vandalism or destructive behavior.

While both settings feature their own unique challenges, a quick survey of my friends affirms that men’s restrooms are a significantly less desirable environment and that the culture there is worse than in women’s spaces.

All in all, the actions of some of our especially-male students result in essential spaces being inaccessible, costing us our time and our moods. It’s exhausting to those of us who are willing to leave spaces better than we found them when so many feel the need to create a generally-worse environment.

My simple plea in writing this is for all of us to hold a basic awareness of the impacts and consequences that our actions have on others and to respect those oh-so-nebulous others even a little bit. I’m not asking anyone to take any action; I’m asking a few people to not take actions that are actively destructive and inconvenience their classmates.