Bathroom issues have persisted for several years now, with cleanliness and hygiene standards consistently falling short. Despite this, many Santiago students fail to recognize that we, the students, are the primary users of these facilities. Staff members aren’t responsible for the frequent clogs and unsanitary conditions; it’s us. While complaints have been voiced about malfunctioning toilets, sinks, and blow dryers, the question remains: What will it take to address these issues? Is the Administration turning a blind eye until student voices fade into silence?
Interview Questions
When asked, “When are the sinks, blow dryers, toilets, and all the stuff that isn’t working going to get fixed, and if so, when?” Dr. Torres kindly answered, “Once we know things are broken, we put in work orders, and work orders usually take one to two weeks, depending on how it goes. I know there has been some vandalism in the bathroom, but this causes the district to react to ‘Hey if you guys are going to keep doing this, we can’t just keep coming out and repairing them all the time’”.
Students frequently vandalize the bathrooms and disrupt their functionality, placing a strain on administrators who must repeatedly submit work orders to address these issues, often with the understanding that the repairs will likely be undone within a month, if not sooner.
They are student bathrooms and no one else uses them except for students. — Tina Ngo
Torres continued, “D and E are open almost every day, and they’re the ones that we put work orders in, and when we put in a work order, it’s usually one to two weeks before the district plumbers can come out, and get them fixed, but if it’s a sink we’ll bag up the sink so no one uses it, and we try and get them fixed. If it’s a hand blower, they usually put paper towels or napkins in the meantime. Usually, when something gets broken or vandalized, it’s a one to two-week turnaround unless it’s an emergency like a leaky pipe or running faucet that can’t be turned off.”
As students who continuously use these bathrooms, we need to be on the lookout for these things and scan the QR code posted in each bathroom. The admin cannot fix these things if students fail to report them.
Dr. Torres emphasized that improving the conditions of the bathrooms is a priority for the administration, aiming to ensure cleanliness for our students. However, while janitors visit the bathrooms several times daily, they may not get to them as frequently as necessary. Therefore, it’s important that we, students, report any issues promptly to address things that need to be fixed.
Lastly, I asked, “Do you know how many QR codes fill out per week or day?” Dr. Torres said, “Not as many as we want; we wish the students who saw something reported it. It goes straight to us, and the faster we submit the work order, the faster the response time is to get it fixed.”
Dr. Torress never said it was our fault that the bathrooms are continuously being vandalized or that there always seems to be a constant problem. So, if you see something wrong, report it, but better yet, we need to do everything we can to prevent these things from happening in the first place.
