_MORAL: If you play with poop....you pay.______
Producing waste since 1967

The vandalism, pranks and other activities associated with the last weeks of school need to be prosecuted; not by school administrators who may be pressured to let the students off more easily, but rather by the county or district attorney.

One year ago this week several girls at my school were victims of a senior prank that involved deliberately messing up the bathrooms. I went into our largest girls bathroom--about 20 stalls--just before 7 a.m. to have my morning bowel movement. I sat down rather hurriedly because it had been "coming" during my bus ride that was lengthened by a roadwork detour. When I'm about to pass a large poop, I've found that I have better success spreading my legs wider and repositioning myself on the seat. When I tried that, I was thrown backward a little bit because the seat came up with me. I sat down again and tried to figure out what was happening. I tried to move my thighs so that I could see what was on the black seat, but I couldn't move. Again, I tried to raise myself up and took my right hand and tried to remove the toilet seat from my butt. Then, I switched to the left and with both the same expectation and outcome. I leaned around the back and although it was straining to me, I did peck my finger on and then over the back of the seat. Although it didn't fully stick, I was convinced that something had been applied to the seat, although despite some charcoal and something like ink on my fingertip, I couldn't determine exactly what it was. I just knew it was gross!

About that time, a girl a few stalls down cried out for help as she was also stuck. A minute or so later I heard a girl from the other line of stalls call out to her non-going friend that something was wrong and she couldn't get up.

I was the first to get up and it sounded a bit like a suction cup as I gingerly pulled forward, backward and eventually upward to free myself. As I was doing that, a girl came into the stall next to mine, sat down for a pee and you could hear it flow but when she went to wipe, she found there was no toilet paper and that she had sat on a seat covered with smeared shit. She cussed and asked if anyone else was affected by the prank. I pulled up my pants and went immediately to the administrative complex. Our female assistant principal came down as well as our custodial matron. They helped the girls needing it and shut the bathroom down for the rest of the week. Sure, there were students pissed off that they had to go upstairs or downstairs to pee or poop, but as our student newspaper reported, it was the "price" to be paid for the prank.

The students involved, which were rumored to be seniors, were never caught. As for me, I now personally wipe each seat before using the stall and I'm very good in checking for clean toilet paper. Students still brag up the event, and although our administration promises punishment for those that are caught, but never has followed through. One rumor has it that our vice-principal/athletic director, doesn't want to confront three senior boys who are suspected because the prank will probably make the papers and be copied by others in the future. Also, they are on the soccer team and this is soccer season.

In the meantime there are a group of us girls who are demanding that those involved be caught and punished. However, our adminstration doesn't seem to show a lot of initiative because the soccer team could lose some of its players for state.

And I feel better sometimes doing my morning necessity at home just before the bus comes. Also, sometimes during the afternoon I hold it until I get back home.

When there's no administration follow-through, I would think such pranks will continue to be more inviting for future planners and participants.

What happened to Laura and the others at her high school is not really newsworthy because it happens fairly regulary during the last days and weeks of middle school and high school. There are all kinds of pranks and the restrooms are favorite targets because so many of us are dependent on them, there are more than two dozen restrooms in my high school and faculty supervision is minimal, and many students use the restroom as the place in which to let off steam. Therefore, is there any wonder why seats are "messed up," doors bent, locks dismantled, sink handwashing sprayers partially plugged so that the water misses the bowl and hits you at waste level, and our latest, seats unbolted from the back of the bowl so if you move a little while you're doing your thing, both you and the seat fall in. That happened to my best friend just last week! I refuse the use the bathrooms the last week of school for such reasons. Just last week I drove home and took a 10-minute tardy to have my bowel movement rather than going at school. That afternoon, I walked to the Shell station across the street to pee. Like Laura said, the administrators don't want to make waves and with the publicity that would come with it, subject the school to negative press. And I doubt the parents of the students doing the vandalism would stand back and allow their child to be "prosecuted" and be held out of the graduation ceremony. Although I only have a 3.1 GPA and am not winning any scholarships, I feel that four years of observation has taught me that I wouldn't make it as a teacher or school administrator.

Because I have a car, I pick my 11-year-old brother up each day at his middle school. On Friday, I was about 10 minutes late, it was raining, and I couldn't find him in the commons area or library. There were still a lot of kids hanging around and waiting for rides and one of them said he had seen Zach in the bathroom. I walked in and he was one of three boys in open stalls taking a shit. I told him I thought it was humiliating and that we had stall doors when I went there. He said all six or seven doors were removed two weeks ago due to vandalism and pranks. Gang grafitti was involved and in one incident, a bomb threat was left on a toilet paper dispenser which had been beaten open. By taking the doors off, the administrators are asking several hundred boys to PAY for the actions of a few. I wonder how many of the boys are holding their shit in until they get home?

Both the Sheriff and Sabrina are right: when are school administrators going to wise up and realize they are punishing the majority of the good students when they try to send a message to the vandals and pranksters? The Sabrinas and Zachs in each school are "paying" for what the few have done by way of the inconveniences they must put up with.

My daughter is 16 and in January of this year she came running home from school fearful that she wasn't going to make it up our driveway and into our bathroom in order to have her daily stool (which she had been holding since 9 a.m.) The administration made several changes in the bathrooms due to the number of fires and vandalism incidents during first semester. Among the changes: 1) toilet paper rolls were replaced with small recepticals that dispense one square sheet of toilet paper at a time. SO MUCH FOR BEING ABLE TO PUT A LINER OF PAPER OVER THE SEAT BEFORE SITTING DOWN. 2) full-size doors and partitions that went all the way to the floor were replaced by half-size doors and partitions that my daughter says when standing she can see over and into adjacent stalls (she's 5'7" by the way!) SO MUCH FOR PRIVACY! 3) Students can no longer use the bathrooms between classes or over lunch without a pass from one of their teachers and the teacher must have the student log-out and log-in on a sign-up sheet posted near the classroom door. HOW EMBARRASSING THAT IS TO DAUGHTERS LIKE MINE WHO ARE SOMEWHAT SHY AND NOW MUST WALK FROM THE CAFETERIA ALL THE WAY BACK TO CLASS AND THEN SIGN OUT IN ORDER TO GO TO THE BATHROOM WHICH OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE FASTER AND ON THE STUDENT'S TIME! 4) Every time there is a vandalism or any type of prank incident, the "partial" door is removed from that stall for the remainder of the week. HOW UNFAIR THAT THE LAST GIRL IN HAS TO CHOOSE BETWEEN HOLDING IT WHILE STALLS ARE IN USE OR DRAWING ATTENTION TO THEIR NEED BY USING THE OPEN STALL. My daughter says she would rather pee/poop her pants than use the open stall as some of her friends have done.

The feedback I got from the counselor and administrator I talked to was that it was a long-overdue change necessary to send a strong message to students. The problem is that the "message" is being directed at and received by the wrong students. Although the school is one of the top institutions in the state in terms of academics, activities and athletics, I'm considering allowing my daughter to transfer to a parochial school for her senior year. She shouldn't be punished for what a few others do.

What Mom & Taypayer complains about has been going on for some time in a lot of schools. My school used the smaller stall petitions during a planned renovation last year. Yes, the rules suck, but the vandalism and pranks got out of hand just like Laura said. I'm pretty clean about myself and will never sit on an uncovered seat so it does take me more time to put each of the small pieces of toilet paper down. Although we don't have to sign out and in like Mom & Taxpayer reports, about a third of our doors are off at any given time. When I go in at lunch break I use my lap top or large U.S. history book for additional privacy. Overall, the open stalls are cleaner, but there's still not much flushing going on. I wander if the situation will be better in two years when I'm off at college. However, I'm not too hopeful.

As a parent, homeowner and taxpayer I probably haven't paid much attention to what's going on in the school's in my district. My daughter attends a Catholic academy so I've had no contact with the public schools since I graduated in 1988. To supplement my husband's pay, I deliver packages for al local courier company. Last week I made a mid-morning delivery of a computer part to a middle school. There were almost no students around when I had the office secretary sign for the delivery and I decided to stop in the bathroom on my way out.

First, five of the six stalls were unflushed. I selected the clean one, but had to flick a couple of sheets of toilet paper off the seat before I sat down. The toilet paper dispenser was hanging by one bolt and the plastic had been smashed, although there was enough available for my immediate need. After I got situated I noticed the seat I was sitting on was precariously loose, so there would be no movement on my part.

Then a bell rang and within 15 to 20 seconds the mob started coming in. Two girls apparently collided in vying for the stall to my left, and I heard "Well go ahead and take it bitch" among several profanities from other girls. If I hadn't seen their legs and heard their conversation, I don't think I would have believed it but two girls used the stall to my right. I didn't think it would be allowed! One peed while the other stood in there keeping her company talking about how she'd like to give Ethan in her science class ...well the same that Monica gave Bill Clinton. In a period of about five minutes three girls tried to open my door, I heard one remark that she had been holding her shit since 8 a.m. and it "wasn't going to be pretty" when she "exploded." Two sets of eyes peaked in on me and I heard something about me being a "******* ***** narc."

Then the warning bell rang and within 30 seconds the pack of noisy and largely obnoxious students quickly departed. The toilet immediately behind where I was "washing" my hands had overflowed,the soap dispenser had been vandalized, and I took three or four paper towels out of the basin to prevent further problems.

Just as I was opening the door to leave, one very young girl ran into me as she raced for a stall. I hesitated for a few seconds as I saw her throw her weight into the door of the stall I had used, and drop her shorts just in tme as she threw herself onto the stool just before you could hear the eruptive noises of what was to come. I was still standing there when I heard her say, "Sorry, but I've been holding this for almost three hours and I can never get a stall during passing periods."

This month it will be even easier for me to justify my decision to go back to work and the need to write the check for my daughter's private school!

Guest Shitter needs to put things in proper perspective. The girls saw her as an intruder on their space. As I think back on my middle school experiences 15 years ago, I remember being very territorial. Having one less stall available is upsetting and peeking in and seeing it's an adult would piss me off too. There would be time for two or three of us to use a stall during class break, but there was no extra time to play with. When you sat down you had to be ready to go. Then you had to be ready to quickly turn the stall over the the next in line. An adult sitting there the whole time would have upset me too. A few bangs on the stall door was minimal compared to what would have happened at Disney Middle School! Also, my best friend would sometimes come into the stall with me. Conversations are important and there's no law against talking while you're peeing (although I think our handbook had a one-person-per-stall rule, but it was never enforced). Finally, the girl that ran into Guest Shitter apologized, what more can she do? At least she had an understanding teacher. There were times when my friends and I had to hold it in longer. Large number of students and limited bathroom facilities invite the problems Guest Shitter witnessed.

Tarahh: "I'm pretty clean about myself and will never sit on an uncovered seat so it does take me more time to put each of the small pieces of toilet paper down." It is abolutely INSANE to put a large numbers of toilet tissues, one sheet at a time, over a school toilet. First, how many other girls are being denied the opportunity to use it while the papering is being done? Secondly, that one dispenser of stacked toilet paper isn't going to go very far and will likely not be available for the person who has the most messy bowel movement and who really needs it to clean themselves. Such practices based on I don't know what fears are extreme enough that I think could fall under the category of "pranks and vandalism" that all of us students PAY FOR in a big way each time toilets are messed up or one of the younger students complains about the restroom being trashed. For the students who have lost much of their privacy and the more traditional rolls of toilet paper, I wonder what can be taken away next. Wasting tissues and time covering the seat if it were to be done by every user would result in not only a monumental waste of paper and time, but would probably cause longer lines for each stall and definitely require that the toilet paper dispensers be restocked with another five or six dozen squares hourly. The cost of such individual habits such as Tarahh's impacts all of us and contributes to the unkempt restrooms and clutter we get criticized for. Most of us sit right down on the seat and Tarahh should too!

I'm a junior and the senior prank at my school occurred this past weekend. According to seniors, what I observed and my friends, shit was placed on each of the 120-some toilets in all parts of our building. Students, apparently somebody with farm connections, brought it in by truck sometime over the weekend and must have spent a good amount of time making the "deposit" on each toilet seat. Our administration is offering a reward for information, especially on how our school's state-of-the-art security system was bypassed. Members of the evening janitorial crew were called in as well as a couple of workers from our middle school to speed-up the clean-up. Announcements on the PA system kept us informed as to what restrooms had been cleaned and opened. Especially during first and second hour, there were some long waits. One girl in my chemistry class said, even after she waited for the cleaning, it took her a longer amount of time to get her flow of pee going just because she knew what had been on the seat earlier. My lab partner, who had to hold his shit until 3rd hour, said he put toilet paper over the seat for the first time ever. He wasn't about to take any chances.

Two years ago a fraternity prank at my college caused the university administration to fine the Council of Fraternities $1,000 and to place them on a year's probation. A group of students gained access to the College of Business Administration building late one night and deposited pig shit and pee on each toilet seat in the five-story building. Included were the dean's office and the set of faculty restrooms on each floor. A number of small piglets were let loose to run in the building, including in a number of technology labs. It was rumored that the plot was hatched by a group of frat guys who didn't make the GPA necessary to declare a business major and take upper level courses. There was also some grafitti left slamming Kenneth Lay.

Senior Debater is right. The amount of paper used by students like Tarahh is often left on the seat, will fall off and give the whole stall an unkempt look, and is used, and this is a frequent complaint of mine, to jam up the toilets.
For the past three years at my high school, I have been sitting directly on the toilet, just like I do and my three sisters do at home. I have not picked up any STD, large blotches of pimples on my butt or any other inflections or lice or other bugs in my pubic area. Tarahh and the others that waste all the paper lining the seat or--and there seems to be more of these--squatters who mess the seat up for us sitters, make the entire student body look bad to the administration. When there are widespread reports of toilets overflowing and hand-soap machines being vandalized, it makes ALL of us look bad.
Yesterday, on the last full-day of school, all the stalls were taken when I had to pee real bad. Unfortunately, the first stall to open had at least three students who contributed to a shit pile that had not been flushed and it was being held up by what appeared to be someone's biology book. Although I felt bad, I had no choice but to sit and pee.

As students, we have to do a better job of respecting and policing our bathrooms. The administration is going to be reluctant to upgrade bathrooms when they are being treated so badly by many in the student body. Those doing the damage and showing the disrespect make us ALL look bad to the community, as Guest Shitter Mom reported.

Why is it that some parents are under the misconception that if they PAY for school, it's better? Do they honestly believe middle or high school girls and/or boys in a private setting do NOT curse and are NOT nasty? That there is NO violence, drug use, or sex? Kids are kids and have been since the earth was cooling. Mischief and destruction of property are going to happen. Cursing is something they all test drive because they think it makes them cool. It goes on in all schools and in all walks of life. Paying for school does not buy you class. The biggest difference is, private schools have more funding to pay for all the shit the little darlings fuck up, and the parents don't hear what goes on because they generally keep it behind closed doors. God forbid a parochial or private school has an incident worthy of negative press.

I agree with Tarahh that probably the majority loses because of the minority--small as it may be, it is still quite expensive--that doesn't pick up after itself and vandalizes property that we all need in order to perform basic human functions. Until our administrators cracked down on the vandalism with more open door stalls, loss of toilet seat covers (which they say too few used and more abused--a packet of 50 dumped into the stool, a couple of students taking a lighter to the full dispenser) and cameras situated in the hallways and focused on the restroom entrances. Where I disagree with Tarahh, however, is the time and large number of tissues she uses to put over the toilet seat. Me and my friends sit right down on the seats and we always have. Yes, frequently there will be urine on the seat and we just wipe it off with one sheet of toilet paper. Without making a nest and all the paper being wasted which I feel contributes to the clutter and potentially encourages additional vandalism problems. I for one, usually use the bathrooms three times a day at school and after my morning poop, the lack of cleanliness and accumulation of clutter is very evident by lunchtime. If I sit down to pee 6th hour I often will have to bypass four toilets in order to find one that's not sabatoged or overflowing before I can sit down for 45 to 60 seconds and relieve myself. My friend won't even try finding a suitable stall after school--we go over to the gas station across the street. Those students who use the excessive paper to build the nests spur on an even larger problem that is very difficult to control.

I went to pick up my daughter, 12, after school last week and her friends said she was getting some extra help in math. As I waited in the lobby I found that I probably needed to go in and pee. I found the nearest restroom. It had 5 stalls, 3 sinks and it was completely filthy. Three of the stalls had pee and crap piled so high that the bowls obviously would not flush properly. Obviously, the toilet paper supply was depleted in each. The 4th stall was doorless but there were obscene drawings and markings on the two partitions. About 9 or 10 phone numbers were posted for sex, drugs or combinations thereof. The end stall, the one that I used after putting some toilet paper on the seat, required me to walk very gingerly on a wet floor that was obviously a hazard. It was 45 minutes before Meghan got done and she was relieved to find that I was there and that she would be home in 5 minutes and not have to have her bowel movement at school. I wonder why?

Sounds like a typical public school bathroom, Surprised Mom. The last public high school I attended only had doors on two of five stalls, and only one of those doorless ones even had dividers. The other toilets were frequently full of piss, shit, and used tampons. The sinks were full of lugies, spent cigarettes, and stuff I don't even want to identify. And then there was the trash can, which overflowed and tipped to the side like the unstable north flank of Mount Saint Helens. Someone also spit on the mirror and rubbed it across the glass so that yellow snot clouded everything. The bathroom was like this for weeks and no one cleaned it.

On the brighter side, our local administrator got his annual raise, so he was able to buy that nice four-bedroom "cottage" on the Columbia River.

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Born right the first time.

How lucky I am, to teach in a small church-related school. We have a few little things, like tiles being pried up from the floor (and one being left in a toilet), but on the whole the place is fairly clean, and so far the new stall doors have not been badly messed with (one has a slight dent). Only rarely do I find turds left in a toilet, and of those few times even fewer appear deliberate. Even the writing on the walls is sparse and fairly innocuous. Perhaps one difference is that both faculty and students use the same restrooms.

I'm in 9th grade. Since middle school, I've found the bathrooms get worse as the year drags on. In August and September, I don't even look before I sit down because everything is so nice and shiny. The door latches work, the seats are tight and the stalls are nicely painted. By October, there's little flushing, overflows start, and you will sometimes find a shit or two right on the seat (since the seats are black, some of the lights are out, and we're in a hurry, we don't always take the time to wipe the seat before we sit down). By January a couple of the doors are completely broken or taken off, some seats are hanging by one bolt, toilet paper holders are smashed and sometimes deposited into the bowl (where many of the tampon dispensers also end up) and it's cold as hell to sit down because students and administrators open the windows to get rid of the smoke and smokers that become more frequent as the year goes on. By April, only in an emergency (I've had 2 this year!) will I sit directly on the toilet seats because they are so disgusting. Both my mom and my friends understand why we practically run to our homes after school. Holding it is the best option!

How can we keep our public school facilities clean?
Why not do like the Japanese? Don't hire janitors, let the kids do the cleaning themselves. Little Johnny will not be as amused by litte Tom shitting on the commode seat if he knows he will be cleaning it off himself.

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Eat chilies and feel the burn!!

In reading the postings by Tasneem and others, I have to accept that school bathrooms are not going to be as carefully upkept as those which most of us use at home. True, I've been out of high school 9 years and yes I admit there was a lot of abuse and outright poop vandalism that went on in my school BUT we just accepted it as 2,500 students, some mature--others immature, vying for a precious resource and battling restrictive teachers who were often not very cooperative. I crapped and peed at school more than many of the others because I took drivers ed at 6:30 a.m. each day and stayed after school for three hours for practices in volleyball and softball. You just have to adapt to the situation when there's only one toilet open and it has no door or someone has peed on the seat or jams it with a really big shit and lots of toilet paper. Sit down, eliminate your waste and GET OVER IT! Even though you may sit out in the open or in someone else's pee, it's a small price to pay compared to a ruptured anus or bladder infection.

Realist writes: "Even though you may sit out in the open or in someone else's pee, it's a small price to pay compared to a reputured anus or bladder infection." Wrong! I'm 25 and can't remember ever sitting in another person's pee, with the exception of a few times when I was drunk in a bar during college, or when I had the runs during flu season and it was 45 miles to the next I-80 rest stop, or three or four times a week while I was in high school! Now I remember what I need to forget about those horrid bathrooms and the uncaring teachers and administrators who had a faculty bathroom to use.