All Galileo students know the feeling of going on a wild goose chase to find open bathrooms, since many of them are often closed for maintenance, but many students will be extremely frustrated to know that its about to get worse!
On April 1st 2024, the school unanimously decided to permanently close every single bathroom on site due to a multitude of reasons, including rampant tagging, destruction of facilities, a lack of funding to pay janitors, and a desperate need for more storage are among the factors. Galileo students will now have to utilize off campus bathrooms.
“It’s just simply what had to be done,” remarked principal Mr. Panjabi, when asked why the bathrooms are being shut down.
In recent weeks, problems in the bathroom have gotten to the point where the school just can no longer afford to keep them open. According to the school administrators, there have always been a few locks on the stalls that are broken, but recently all the stall doors and at least 2 sinks were reported missing from bathrooms on the third and fourth floor and one toilet has also been found completely disassembled on the second floor.
In terms of tagging and graffiti, the restrooms had reached a point where they had to be repainted and cleaned every day. Students had started using actual professional paints to create intricate graffiti and murals on the tile walls which were very hard to wipe off. The repainting was applied so frequently that they often didn’t dry in time and dripped on the floor.
A number of the janitors are happy to hear about the restrooms being shut down as they have terrible experiences with the bathrooms.One of the janitors said, “Sometimes, when I use the restroom a couple hours after cleaning it in the afternoon before heading home the walls are already covered in graffiti!” Another janitor added, “One time I actually walked in on a group of students with a tool kit in the process of disassembling a sink! All of them ran out before I could take names but I was too baffled to speak.”
Students are a little baffled about the situation as many are scrambling to think of alternatives to use the bathroom. “I actually preferred going to Ghirardelli at lunch to use the restroom, but now that everything’s closed I can’t imagine how crowded it’ll be. If Ghirardelli bans us then I don’t know what we’re gonna do,” said junior Benjamin T.
The combined costs of repairs and maintenance were simply too much for the school to handle, which pushed them to repurpose the bathrooms into storage rooms. You can view the images below.
