A Little Bit Stickier Than One Would Expect: A Comprehensive Review of BHS Bathrooms

Have you ever walked into a school bathroom and wanted to throw up from just the experience of entering? Or maybe you’ve heard the horror stories about them and decided to avoid using the bathrooms at school altogether. No matter what part of the spectrum you’re on, I’m sure that you don’t want to learn through trial and error which bathrooms are the worst to experience, so, I did it for you.

According to myself and several volunteers, these are the best and worst locations in BHS to do your business.*
*most factors based on time of review

(Please note that The Hoofprint doesn’t put any blame on the custodians for the state of our bathrooms. They have done an incredible job throughout the building despite staffing difficulties and an abrupt return to normal school attendance.)

Men’s Bathrooms

Men’s Gym Bathroom 

7.5/10
Inconvenient location but very clean.

Men’s PAC Bathroom

6/10
Was found with a soap dispenser on the ground and generally unclean.

Men’s Junior Locker Bathroom

3/10
Usually busy, doesn’t have dividers between urinals.
Was found with a sticky floor and generally unclean. 

Men’s Senior Locker Bathroom

3/10
Dirty mirrors and paper towels on the floor. Sinks were sticky.

Men’s Sophomore Locker Bathroom

2.5/10
Smelled awful, a little bit cleaner than the Senior Locker bathroom.

Men’s Cafeteria Bathroom

2/10
Was found with paper towels on the floor and in the sinks, and with one sink left running.

Men’s Freshman Locker Bathroom

1/10
Smelled truly awful, wet paper towels in the sink, unclean.

Women’s Bathrooms

Women’s Senior Locker Bathroom

8/10
Clean, not sticky, mirrors were usable.

Women’s Gym Bathroom

6/10
Fairly clean (no visible dirt, but paper towels and toilet paper on the floor).

Women’s PAC Bathroom

5/10
Large, mirrors were nice, relatively clean. 

Women’s Cafeteria Bathroom

3/10
Several sinks contained wet paper towels, bathroom is often unclean.

Women’s Junior Locker Bathroom

1/10
Smelled strongly of vape, paper towels on the floor, one toilet found unflushed.

Women’s Sophomore Locker Bathroom

1/10
Mysterious substance in the sink, smelled bad, floor was sticky and unclean.

Women’s Freshman Locker Bathroom

1/10
Sinks were green (?) and contained hair, floor was sticky, smelled bad.

Gender Neutral/Single-Stall Bathrooms

Gym Bathroom

9/10
Spacious, nice lighting, good water pressure, clean, fun pattern on the floor.

Freshman Locker Bathroom

7/10
Rusty table inside, good water pressure, but messy floor (stains, paper towels).

Sophomore Locker Bathroom

7/10
Good water pressure, fairly clean, mediocre overall.

Junior Locker Bathroom

7/10
Graffiti on the wall (?), toilet creaks when you sit on it, generally alright.

Art Hallway Bathroom (blue stalls)

5.5/10
Intense water pressure, cold, stained urinal and floor, unclean mirror, ominous.

Art Hallway Bathroom (red stalls)

3/10
Toilet found unflushed, popsicle stick found in another, sticky floor, weak water pressure.

Conclusions

Of course, there were some flaws with my rating system, including but not limited to the fact that we only visited each bathroom once, the different people rating each bathroom, and the arbitrary scores that were largely based upon the cleanliness of each restroom. Despite the flaws, there’s several trends that can be seen through the results of our trials.

Across the board, the biggest issue with the bathrooms was the condition that each one gets to by the end of the day. Paper towels littered across the floor that never made it into the trash, toilets and sinks left with mysterious substances within, and the oddly sticky floors in several rooms. The biggest flaw with the lowest rated bathrooms was the cleanliness (or rather, lack thereof) of each. This is not the fault of our custodians, who do incredible amounts of work throughout the building during and after the school day, and instead more of a fault of the large amount of students that go into each one throughout the day and don’t take the amount of care when using them that is necessary to keep them in good condition by the end of the day. 

Another thing we found was that across the building, the school bathroom experience is incredibly varied, although in general, the gender neutral/single-stall restrooms would be the most pleasant to use, even after school hours. Some were described as almost ideal, and others were described to me as dimensions I wouldn’t dare step foot into. 

Having clean bathrooms is often overlooked as a privilege that many aren’t fortunate enough to have, and that’s reflected in the things we often see in our bathrooms. Paper towels were the most common offenders, but we’ve seen other questionable things in our sinks and toilets too. 

Unknown red substance found in a sink.

Cracked egg found on a men’s toilet.

“RAGE” written on the side of a toilet paper dispenser. 

From stall doors not locking in bathrooms with empty soap dispensers, to pristine, lockable, and perfectly private single-stall lavatories, BHS offers a wide range of water-closet experiences. Unfortunately, many of them are far from ideal. The Hoofprint wishes all BHS students an egg-free commode experience (unless you’re into that sort of thing.)