Walking into Ipswich High School, you would probably expect a clean and well kept up building, yet, for many years, while entering a student bathroom you would find a clutter of destroyed soap dispensers, doors, and even leftover vapes thrown and hidden behind the toilet. One could ponder how this all started and how even a school with good records of students, could even produce this type of vandalism in bathrooms. Why do students at IHS act like the bathroom is their own bedroom? And why does the school administration have blank answers for them?

According to a poll sent out to a Journalism class at IHS, every student agreed to seeing vandalism in the school bathrooms. Adding on, half of the students have felt like that the bathrooms felt unsafe sometimes due to crowded spaces and vaping. Fifthteen out of sixteen students did not support the recent conversion of the boys upper A bathroom into a teacher bathroom. To add on, all students also felt like the bathroom was dirty and unclean for use.  One student commented on how vaping is “an unhealthy habit that has to be stopped…I was rather unhappy when the teacher bathroom replaced the upstairs A-Pod bathroom, I don’t understand why this happened”.  So was the reason why this bathroom was taken away was because of vaping and to have a better surveillance on what students are really up to?

Mr. Arnold has been teaching at the High School for a couple of years and has some views on this situation. Mr. Arnold explained how “bathroom vandalism has happened about six times in two years; yes, it was eventually resolved and janitors would work hard to clean up messes and repairs would be made in the summer if needed.”  Mr. Arnold also added about the absence of one of the stall doors in a boys bathroom in the lower B-Pod for about a whole year. Arnold expressed how “ no stall doors is like “priston style “; it’s more visible for monitoring yet you would go to the bathroom exposed in the stall?”

This problem with no door on a stall is because of a past student who destroyed the door. Yet, it took a while for a replacement which angered students, especially during the school assembly for the hall pass plan. Many students questioned why they worry about students in the hall rather than fixing a stall door. 

Now everyone can see many sides to this disaster, and the opinions that differ throughout the school. Yet what could start such behavior? And what actions could be taken to lessen them? An article from Triton Sensors explains how these destructions root from possible psychological factors or even peer pressure with social media. Many ways given to combat this include: implementing strict surveillance around bathrooms, teaching respect for school property, educating others, and students’ roles in school maintenance. In all, this issue could be lessened by educating students about how to respect school property and having better maintenance. This contracts the school’s efforts to stop vandalism by the removal of student bathrooms and the absence of replaced and fixed property

After review, the clear resolution of school vandalism and the damaging of property could be stopped by simple education, monitoring, and student roles to help protect the schools property. All of these actions actually have a more positive and efficient effect than taking away bathrooms and letting them rot in a mess. Ipswich High School should be a community with respect and gratitude for having such a good school. Vandalism can end with simple respect and teaching others why it is a privilege to live in such a great academic town.