It’s common knowledge that whenever someone goes to the restroom, they need to wash their hands with soap and water. So much so that the first versions of soap date back to 2800 BC according to evidence left by the Babylonians. Although those versions of soap were not the best at keeping stuff clean, soap has been around for a very long time so it’s been able to improve over the centuries.
Soap is very effective when it comes to cleaning off germs and it’s necessary to fight off diseases and illness. For instance, if soap is used for about 30 seconds when washing your hands, about 99.9% of pathogens (bacteria) will be removed. There’s no doubt that using soap to wash hands is much more effective than using water alone.
In that case, why is it that there’s hardly any soap in the restroom dispensers at our school? For a school whose three core values are “Be respectful, responsible, and safe”, it is not responsible nor safe to be lacking in something such as basic necessities. No one wants to go to the restroom and have no soap to wash their hands. The issue has been going on for a while since the school year started and it’s been a concern for many students.
We barely just escaped the height of COVID-19 but that does not mean that it’s over. Health should still be a top concern for the school and that includes ensuring that the soap dispensers in the restrooms are working and filled. When school began once lockdown lifted back in 2021, all the classrooms were stocked with hand sanitizer, wipes, and masks. How come the school can’t even provide soap in the restrooms now? COVID can survive on surfaces and when there are thousands of kids touching those surfaces with no way to properly sanitize their hands, a COVID outbreak could occur. In fact, at the beginning of September, a new COVID variant was identified. So no, COVID is not over. I got COVID last month and so have many others at school.
Not to mention, Summer is over and now it’s Fall, and Winter is just around the corner, and with Winter comes flu season. Although they should stay home, many students still come to school due to their parents and other factors, but the simple thing of having soap in the restrooms will prevent so many other students from getting sick too. The lack of soap in the dispensers of restrooms poses a great health risk and it’s just unsanitary.
I noticed the issue and took data for two weeks (it’s been an issue for longer), it occurred numerous times and became a huge inconvenience to the students. At every available restroom in school, there was always at least one time when there was no soap in the restrooms. This in itself would not be so bad, it could mean that for that day, all the soap ran out. However, when there were restrooms that rarely had soap, it became a huge problem.
A majority of the issue took place in the girls’ restroom. For 10 days, I checked in the mornings before school started and I expected the soap to be filled; a lot of the restrooms were not. Once again, I would check all the restrooms during lunchtime and many dispensers were not filled up at all, and sometimes only one dispenser had soap. Along with lunchtime, I would go during the passing period and in class. Every day, it was the same restrooms that lacked soap in the dispensers. I would go one last time after school and even more restrooms had no soap. Understandably, it was the end of the school day. However, the cycle repeated and there was no change at all from the end of the school day to the next morning. The restrooms still lacked soap. It seemed as if the custodians put no effort into keeping up with the maintenance of the restrooms.
The most unacceptable example became the restroom by the finance office; seven out of ten times there was no soap at all. The fact that the restroom is right by the cafeteria makes the situation so much worse; people need to wash their hands.
I’m not the only one who noticed this, “I walk up to the sink and there’s no soap, absolutely none,” Ximena Ramirez, a junior, said. “Am I supposed to hope that the power of Jesus cleansed my hands and then eat my food?”
Along with the restroom by the finance office, the B, 1000s, and 600s restrooms are extremely unreliable. In the B restroom, six out of nine times there was no soap, and most of those times were in the morning. Shouldn’t the dispensers be refilled after school so they’re good for the next day? As for the 1000s restroom, five out of ten times there was no soap but it should be kept in mind that there’s only one soap dispenser for three sinks in the 1000s. In the 600s, five out of nine times there was no soap and it was checked throughout the day.
The rest of the restrooms are generally more reliable. However, there have been times when those restrooms have had no soap at all in one dispenser but plenty of soap in the other. The 700s restroom has had five out of eleven times with no soap, the main building with three out of nine times but generally only one dispenser has soap, and the second set of B restrooms with a promising one out of eight times with no soap possibly because it’s hidden and not used often.
As for the other restrooms, they’re usually closed during school hours, or not everyone has access to them.
With this being a health concern, the appropriate steps must be taken to ensure that every restroom receives the basic necessity of hand soap. A lot of students are tired of being inconvenienced by this issue, and many of them don’t even like going to the restroom anymore.
“It’s gross, germs are spreading all over the place,” Samantha Vazquez, a senior, said.
Other students have harsh opinions about the lack of soap in the restrooms and having to use the restrooms with no soap to wash their hands afterward.
“It’s disgusting,” Yarisbel Barriga, a senior, said. “I don’t like the feeling of knowing how many germs there are, I feel like throwing up.” She said that this has been an issue since she started school here.
However, it might not be an issue for long. I brought the issue up to Richard Esparza, the plant foreman and maintenance supervisor. He added some insight into the situation and reasons why the lack of soap has been such a huge problem.
“I know sometimes they [custodians] get pulled out of their routes because of events – special events such as football games,” Esparza said. Meaning that it’s hard for the custodians to be on top of everything and ensure everything is up to par.
Another factor is the students themselves. There have been many occasions where restroom vandalism occurred such as wall writing or more seriously – the destruction of property including soap dispensers. With the custodians being short-staffed and pulled off their routes, they find it difficult to keep up with the stock of soap in the restrooms regularly.
“We have some type of vandalism that goes on with students,” Esparza said. “They’ll break dispensers and we try to replace them as soon as possible.”
Despite everything, Esparza doesn’t believe the lack of soap is a health concern because there are enough supplies to go around. “I think it’ll get better before it gets worse,” he said.
Esparza believes if the custodian team modifies their priorities, the issue will improve. The custodians should focus on the need for sanitation products as much as they focus on the outside of campus. Esparza mentioned that the custodians have been working with security to know what needs to be stocked up. “Securities are really helpful on that aspect,” he said.
The best solution is the rate at which the soap dispensers are refilled and having the restrooms that are more visited by students receive more maintenance by custodians. The custodians would need to do morning checks as well as during the school day and receive help from security.
In the long run, I hope to see improvements in the situation as it’s been an issue since the start of the school year. Health and safety should be the number one priority at our school and it’s pleasant to see the custodial team willing to achieve it, now that the issue has been brought up to their attention. If we all played our part on campus, then we’d make the custodians’ jobs much easier. They would have more time to restock our restrooms instead of cleaning all the trash left behind by students. The health of the students is as important as ensuring that our campus remains clean and safe. As Esparza said, “I think if we all worked together, it could get better.”
