Lately there has been an increase in the amount of bathroom vandalism. In my experience, it seems like half the time I go to the restroom there’s graffiti. Of course, there’s always been vandalism but lately it seems like there’s more than before.

The vandalism varies from a few words to works of art – at this point, you never know what you’re going to get when you walk into a stall. It doesn’t discriminate, either – bathroom graffiti is present in both the boys’ and girls’ restrooms in every building. There’s so much, I think the janitors have realized they’re fighting an uphill battle because none of it seems to be disappearing.

I don’t blame them. At this point it’s probably better to clean it all at the end of the year or every month or so rather than cleaning up graffiti as it appears. I’ll share some of the graffiti I’ve seen around, but unsurprisingly, much of it is not appropriate, so if you want to see that, just go to the restroom.

You might be wondering why there’s been an increase in vandalism lately. Is it just a coincidence? Of course not. As with many trends, this one most likely comes from social media.

Posts showing pictures of the vandalism have become quite popular. You have to admit, it’s pretty entertaining to see what people will draw or write in restroom stalls. I mean, some of these graffiti artists have talent. My theory is that more people are vandalizing the restrooms because they are hoping to get posted, or maybe even posting their own graffiti.

Surprisingly, administrators haven’t seemed to have taken any action on this. I was wondering what the teachers might have to say about this, so I interviewed Mrs. Summers, biomedical sciences teacher. “Well, if the social media posts prompt people to write humorous, artistic graffiti instead of just more inappropriate graffiti, then I don’t feel terribly about that. On the other hand, as a teacher, I feel like the responsible answer is to say graffiti costs the school time and money because the poor custodians have to clean that up.” I totally agree – I feel bad for the custodians always have to clean up graffiti now, but at least it’s not the usual unoriginal graffiti anymore. We’ll just have to see if the school decides to do anything about the graffiti that’s been plaguing the bathrooms this year.