As I walk into the room, I am immediately greeted with the aroma of human waste.
I continue my journey to the urinals and find there is a liquid on the ground, most likely urine.
I go into the stall in hope for a clean place to use the restroom but instead I find that someone forgot to flush. Welcome to the boys’ bathroom.
Boys’ bathrooms in this school are gross, and it is not the janitors’ fault.
There is urine on the tile. It smells, and water lies in puddles all over the sink area.
Sometimes I would rather not go to the bathroom than enter the washrooms in this school.
It is our fault. Boys, we need to step up our lavatory game.
Step one: leave your phone in your pocket. 75 percent of people use their cell phones while in the restroom, according to nymag.com.
As a result, as many as one in six people contaminate their phones with human waste while in a public restroom. The phone can wait, but your bladder cannot.
Step two: more effectively manage the paper towels. They go in the trash can — not on the floor, not in this sink, not in the bathroom stall. I use one to two paper towels and then I throw them away.
Paper towels are bought for us by the school, so they should be used as conservatively as possible. I don’t believe I’m taking a bath in the sink, so I don’t need to use all the paper towels.
Step three: see your cleanliness as a civic responsibility. According to japan-talk.com, public restrooms in Japan are extremely advanced compared to American restrooms.
When you enter a public restroom in Japan, there is an information board on the wall, showing the different types of stalls and whether or not they are occupied.
There is complete privacy; every stall and urinal has a wall from the roof to the floor on all sides. They are also indisputably clean. If Japan can do it, we can too.
Step four: flush. When I go to the bathroom, whether it be in the urinal or stall, I flush whether it be with my hand or my foot. According to citylab.com, two thirds of Americans flush public toilets with their feet.
Even if I flush with my feet, at least I don’t leave the toilet there for someone else to flush. It literally takes one second. I think it is gross when anyone doesn’t flush, and you’re the one responsible.
Step five: wash your hands. It might seem silly, but according to WebMD, only 85 percent of Americans wash their hands after using the restroom.
I wash mine for about 30 seconds, which is about the time one should, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Your hands are one of the body parts that touch other people the most, so in theory you should try to make them as clean as possible.
We are in high school, not elementary, gentlemen. Leave the phone in the pocket, throw away the paper towels, flush, and wash your hands. Let’s make it easier for everyone and clean up after ourselves.
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