It began as a complaint, but transformed into a fully fleshed idea within a week. Junior Christine Helms created a petition with the intention to get the bathrooms fixed, collecting over 600 signatures in less than a month from her peers.
The condition of the bathrooms in the school have long been scrutinized and criticized, drawing numerous grievances from students of all grades.
“The doors don’t lock, there’s literally always paper on the floor, there’s never any paper towels and the faucets are illogical,” Helms said. “It’s ridiculous.”
Helms blends into the mass of other students in the hallways—AP student, soccer player, rides horses on the weekends, writes—but instead of falling into the same mantra of complaints surrounding her, she decided to take action.
Originally, Helms got the idea for the petition after speaking to an SGA representative while on a bus ride home. Helms first brought her petition to school on Dec. 16.
Most of the responses Helms has received were positive from her peers, agreeing that the bathrooms need immediate repair and improvement.
“Some people just sign it, but a lot of people when they see what it is go, ‘Yes, finally!’ and are excited about it,” Helms said.
Despite the overwhelming positive feedback when advertising her petition, she has confronted different opinions as well. Opinions range from disagreement to even taking a neutral side on the issue.
“Only a couple of people have argued about it, saying that it’s the kids’ fault,” Helms said.
Opinions differ from all over the school.
According to students, much of the blame for the state of the bathrooms is towards the school administration and their lack of renovation and funding. Others said that the blame belongs to the students who lack respect and fail to clean after themselves.
“I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault because a lot of people use them and obviously there’s going to be some damage over time,” senior Bhargavi Munukutla said. “I know that there’s the whole issue with the limited budget this year, but I think that they should just provide enough money to fix the locks, because that’s the biggest problem right now.”
In order to spread the word and reach more students across the school, Helms gave blank copies of her petition to friends to gain more signatures. Some of her friends that helped include juniors Susie Azarsina, and Sarah Hummer, along with sophomores Caroline Herodet and Taylor Eihausen.
“[I helped] because our bathrooms are really bad and we need new ones,” Azarsina said. “I figured the petition would help, and then they would do something about it.”
Through her petition, Helms’s main intention is to simply get the bathrooms fixed.
“Seniors have said that the same doors have been broken since they were freshman,” Helms said. “The people who are freshman now obviously didn’t break the doors, but they are going to have to deal with it for the next four years.”
Students, like Helms, voice their opinions about the issues they have with the school bathrooms such as dirty or broken sinks.
Even further than that though, she hopes to prove to her peers that one idea, one step, one voice can make a difference in the school’s system and choices. If her petition is followed through, her actions will affect every student in the building.
Administration is always willing to listen to students and encourage them to share their opinions. Petitions are taken seriously by the school.
“If they bring it to our attention, then we will give it to our people.” subschool 3 Assistant Principal, K.T. Lynch said. “We really need kids to let us know when there are problems. I think awareness is our biggest issue.”
Helms still has not decided when she will turn in her petition to administration, but her current goal is to reach a thousand total signatures.
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