Rising concerns about hygiene and cleanliness at Edison bathrooms have been caused by unethical usage and immature behavior.
“The students leave a mess, and they don’t flush. And it stinks in there,” said School Aide David Ortega.
Students complained about the unhygienic state of bathrooms, caused by some of their peers’ questionable choices. Ignoring the intended purpose of bathrooms, students would skip, vape, or scroll on their phones. At times, students would wreck the toilets and urinals causing a nuisance for numerous students and staff.
Many students think the school cleans the bathroom during the 10 minutes policy, however, this may not always be true.
“The ones on the ground floor are cleaned twice a day,” said Custodian Tim Elia.
When asked about how long it takes to clean the bathrooms he said, “Once I get in, it’s usually pretty quick.”
“Most of the time, it’s okay. Sometimes the bathrooms are clogged and sometimes people don’t even flush the toilet. The paper towels are missing sometimes. The garbage cans are always overflowing,” said Zhidong Lin, a senior at Edison. “I went to a stall one time, and I stepped in, and it looked like a large pile of chocolate sundae with mustard on the side inside the toilet,” he added.
“Like six and a half. Could definitely be better. Some stalls are broken, but other than that it’s not bad,” said Sonam Lhundup, a freshman at Edison, , when asked to rate the hygiene of Edison bathrooms on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being filthy and 10 being spotless).
When asked about how students’ behavior affected the girls’ bathrooms’ cleanliness the response was,
“Terrible, they leave trash on the floor. In this girls’ bathroom, they left sanitary pads all over the floor and clogged the toilets with toilet paper. In the boys’ bathroom downstairs, they broke the toilet. The G67 bathroom was closed all last week,” said Rose Funderburk, a school aide at Edison.
Originally Edison was an all boys school, explaining why on the third floor there are no girls’ bathrooms. As well as, there being urinals in the girls’ bathroom on the first floor. When it was opened in 1958, the student population was about half of what it is now, requiring less bathrooms and generating less mess.
