School Bathrooms: No privacy, No cleanliness, and No Change

 By Chloe Gensler (Staff Writer) & Diana Feng (Staff Writer)

In the last 10 years at George Washington High School (GWHS) in San Francisco, the bathrooms have not been updated, they are unhygienic, students are vaping and nothing has been done to revamp the bathrooms in years.

Since many students complain about the unhygienic environment and the amount of people vaping in the bathrooms. This has led to students questioning why the bathrooms haven’t been updated in so long. Many of the stalls not working and no supplies in the bathroom have led to longer lines and bad hygiene throughout our school. While there has been talk about a bathroom renovation San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) doesn’t have the funding to update our bathrooms currently. 

Overall Issues:

From a survey sent out to the school many complained about the graffiti left on walls, “There are a lot of disgusting, discriminatory comments written on the bathroom stall walls. They make people feel bad about themselves or feel unwelcome. I don't want to see that.” pointed out a student from the survey. Another student stated “ Many people vape in the bathroom every time I go in during passing period.” Responses from the same survey showed that more than 75% of students have seen someone vaping in the bathroom. 

Head Janitor Maria Bagdon stated, “Custodian team cleans one night a week and there are custodians going out sick for the whole week and that takes some toll, and they work on the first floor which makes it difficult to maintain” Bathrooms are also hard to maintain because of students leaving graffiti on the walls and throwing toilet paper on the ceilings.

Another student from the form noted, “I think cleanliness is what the students do and how clean they want it because custodians can only do so much. It's like when you or your parents clean your room, it's up to you to keep it clean or not.” Many students might agree with that statement and try to keep the bathrooms cleaner.

Bathroom Renovation:

Lack of privacy, and respect in the bathrooms have led to many arguments about the need to update. In regards to this, Bagdon also stated, “They’re cutting down a lot of bills that we over spent.” The lack of funding is the main reason why the bathrooms haven’t been updated in years. While this is one reason, many still complain about the lack of hygiene and overall well being of the bathrooms.

This raised the question: why do students complain so much about the bathrooms if they are part of the problem? Bagdon mentioned, “They don’t care. I can count on my fingers how many people care about the bathrooms.” Many people have complained but not made an effort to contribute to cleaning the bathrooms.

A few of Washington’s senior ASB members are currently dealing with the project of renovating the bathrooms. To be able to have better bathrooms for everybody to use would be really beneficial for SFUSD schools, as many schools like Galileo and Lowell continue to struggle with the same issues concerning their bathrooms as well. It is an ongoing project that may take years to achieve but the students can do their part by cleaning up after themselves.

Comparisons With Other Schools:

The school community wanted to know if other schools from SFUSD are facing the same issues with their bathrooms as Washington is. A student from Lowell High School emphasized, “No one cleans up after themselves ever.” 

The issue isn’t just at Washington but in other high schools as well. It is an ongoing issue that can be fixed with people cleaning up after themselves more regularly. The student also added “our stalls aren’t short thankfully.” The issue of stalls being too short and lack of privacy is mainly at Washington. 

Bathroom History:

According to a news article named “Bathrooms At the Tops of the Fix it List for SF Public Schools,” it pointed out, “I am personally saddened and tired of hearing stories from families about how kids won’t go to the bathroom during the day because of the condition of the bathroom,” said SFUSD Head of Facilities Dawn Kamalanathan, “That is unacceptable.” 

“Our custodians are working to the bone because they are so short staffed,” President Rafael Picazo said, “They work hard; their rents are extreme, inflation is high. We saw raises in 2020, but nothing since.” This supports the Idea of being out of custodian staff as mentioned by Bagdon and how they do as much as their team can, with what they have despite short staff and sick days. 

In a facebook page about GWHS Bathrooms stating, “What Do You Think We Should Do to Change the Bathrooms?” Someone described the bathrooms as, “Yes, please change the Bathrooms, they’re nasty and old.” This post was published on May 15, 2014, which is almost exactly 10 years ago, pointing out the lack of changes in the bathrooms.Which means that the bathroom 10 years ago had faced the same problems as the current 2025 bathrooms.

A lot of GWHS students also mentioned that they skip going to the bathroom because of how crowded they are and the bad conditions of the bathroom. It demonstrates how the board of education has approved of this plan of fixing the bathrooms, but nothing has been done yet because of the lack of funding.