There are 12 student restrooms on campus available for daily use, six for boys and six for girls. Four out of six girls and boys restrooms have issues with missing stalls or broken toilets and urinals.

      “It’s really inconvenient because when I’m trying to use the bathroom and there’s other people in there and stalls are taken and others don’t work, that makes me late to class,” freshman Tyler Fishman said. “It gets me in trouble because the teachers will be like ‘Why are you late?’ and when I say what’s going on in the bathroom, they don’t understand.”  

     Alicia Brown, the assistant principal that oversees the custodial staff said that last year and this year, work orders were sent out regarding the damages in the bathrooms, but no one has come in to complete the repairs. She said this delay is the main reason our school restrooms have not been fixed. 

     “Unfortunately, when we are waiting for something to be fixed, custodial staff do their best to make it a safe environment with temporary fixes like the cardboard covering the hole in the girls bathroom,” Brown said. “I totally understand the perception and frustration when you see the bathrooms. I know that it is not who we are and doesn’t define our school, but I am working very hard to get these items pushed through so that we can get our restrooms repaired.” 

    While administration is working on getting our bathrooms in working order, students may not be making it easier.

     “I have to put the damages in the bathrooms on the kids,” Head Security Guard Coach Ray Thompson said. “Most of the workers in Dade county feel like it is a waste of time to try to repair them just for the kids to break them again.”

     One of the new security guards this year, Jude Lundy, has a similar stance on the issue.       “The issue is students breaking them, not that they aren’t getting fixed,” Lundy said.