Costa Mesa High School is an amazing place of study that I can proudly say I attend, however, that does not mean it’s perfect. There are many issues within our school, some being worked on, and others being outright neglected. For the past week I’ve collected some complaints from anonymous students across the campus, and decided to give some potential solutions to these issues.
Closed Bathrooms
When you have to go to the bathroom, you raise your hand and walk to the nearest bathroom, right? However many students brought up that the bathrooms are more often than not closed. One student, Kelsey Garduno, spoke on this saying, “It’s frustrating to find the bathrooms closed during break since when I ask to go to the bathroom during classes, teachers more often than not say ‘Didn’t you just have a break?’ The lack of access to multiple bathrooms becomes an awkward situation when trying to explain to teachers.”
Now, most students understand occasional closure. Clean bathrooms is something that I think all Mesa students are grateful for. However, the “cleaning” idea most students think of when they see the bathrooms are closed starts to grow less credible when it’s closed more than half of the day. An anonymous student gave their two cents on this, saying, “More frequently do I see the bathrooms closed during class time, and not just during lunch or break. As well as not only for a couple classes, but the entire day. This is really bothersome since then, I end up taking 10 minutes just looking for an open bathroom bathroom. Most teachers expect you back in five, so it leads to a less than lovely situation.” This begs the question, is the constant closure really just for cleanup?
I asked a staff member about why we see so much bathroom closure at Mesa, here’s what they had to say. “I’m under the impression the administration closes bathrooms to prevent both skipping and bad behavior.” I did try to find the security guard that closes the bathrooms…but those guys are harder to find then you might think!
Potential Solutions
Judging by the information pool we have, there’s a couple solutions I have in mind. I personally feel if the school was a bit harsher to repeat offenders, we would see a rapid decrease in bad behavior within the bathrooms. Not only does giving heavier repercussions to repeat offenders lessen the probability of them doing it again, it can also send a message to other people who would consider doing something in the future. Of course, I know every year it seems the ability to give these repercussions gets harder and harder, but if we can’t hold students accountable, just don’t ask them to not do something at all.
Another idea that pops into my mind is to have security guards more often pop into bathrooms to check what’s going on in there. Not a whole pat down search but more of a “pop your head in and look for troublemakers” kind of ordeal. I can confidently say that in my two and a half years of attending Mesa, I’ve only experienced a check in from a security guard while I was in the bathroom once.
If we’re going to hold our students to higher standards, we should hold the staff to high standards as well. Not to say that a security guard job is easy, because there’s no way it is, but just that doing welfare checks of the bathrooms should be a higher priority on the lists of things to be aware of.
Hygiene Products
Staying with the theme of bathrooms, one student brought up a lack of feminine hygiene products within the dispensers located in the girls restroom. Now, this doesn’t mean there’s a lack of them at all, most female teachers make sure to have a small bin, and nurses also give access to it if asked. However, that might not work for some students. Given the negative connotation associated with periods, a lot of girls feel shame or embarrassment when asking for a pad or tampon. For some, asking for a product is not worth the stain that may come without one, and not everyone has a friend that would be willing to spare them a product or even have one at all. For these reasons, I think it would be a positive change to have products inside the dispensers more often, instead of leaving them there to rust.
I know these products aren’t cheap. In fact, the prices of these products seem to be doubling with new tariffs. However, you could argue that the price of these products is the least the school could do for female students. I know not all can understand the experience, and if you see periods as an “uncomfortable” topic, you should first try to understand how uncomfortable it is for many girls and how it affects class time and productivity.
Many female students have to sit through severe cramps and terrible headaches (as well as many other symptoms that differ person to person) in their classes during the week of their period. Kesley Garduno also says, “It’s really annoying and uncomfortable to sit through classes during my period and honestly the nurses don’t do much to help the pain.” If the district is so keen on us attending classes and going to school, I think they should offer funds towards things like period products.
In response to this issue, Nurse Craig said that “pads in my office are provided by the district at no cost. As far as helping with menstrual pain…I have a heating pad they can use in my office, and they can also get medication prescribed by their doctor for use at school as needed.”
I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Mr Gall post writing this article, we discussed this article, and below I’ve attached the added information he has given us.
“One of the problems that they’ve had with putting period supplies back in is there are people that will go in and will take all the pads out and then plug the toilets. I know part of your article was trying to come up with possible solutions if through talking to friends, other students, staff members, or anyone can think of a solution we are more than happy to kind of sit down and kind of talk through and see logistically if that’s something we can make happen, we want you to feel comfortable. Somebody might be in the bathroom and need something and they’re not able to get to the nurses office right away.”
“Typically a bathroom would get closed if something’s broken inside, we have had students mainly in the boys bathroom take the paper towel dispenser off the wall, really kind of immature childish kind of stuff. Last week a sweatshirt was stuffed down into the toilet and then it plugs the toilet and so now that bathroom is not usable. As soon as something is plugged or broken and we’re aware, we do close that bathroom. We try to do our best as soon as that one closes, we have the other one that we open and so I would say if you go by one and it’s closed the other one should be open and if it’s not, I would encourage students come see me right away. “
“The middle school bathroom’s been closed for about a week now because someone broke one of the toilets and so we’ve opened up the one that’s by the band room and then somebody broke something in that one, so then you had both of them right as a backup to a backup. We have the portable one that’s out on the blacktop and that’s really inconvenient because it’s so far away from everything. So the only time the bathroom would a bathroom would be closed is if it’s broken or something is plugged and we try to keep one open on each side at all times.”
Mr Gall also added later on that the tip line ( 844-714-1321 ) is always one of the best option for keeping our school safe and in its best condition. I encourage students to speak up when they see things in order to help our staff keep our school at its best.
