After her fourth period class, sophomore Joanna Schmidt walked into the 400s restroom to fulfill her daily ritual of urinating after drinking a 24 ounce bottle of water. She stepped into the stall, only to glance into the toilet bowl to see something she would never be able to unsee.
“It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my entire life,” Schmidt said. “I really just don’t understand why no one knows how to flush the toilet.”
There have been many complaints made to administration similar to the one Schmidt made , including an entire roll of toilet paper being stuffed into the toilet, multiple flusher handles being rusted over because of lack of use and toilets over flooding. After a day-long meeting and many restroom breaks, Principal Ryan Kite and the rest of the administration decided that there must be something done about this situation.
The first solution administration came up with is making overhead announcements to remind students and staff that toilets are used by everyone at SHS and must be treated with respect. However, according to Kite, students began to flush the toilets uncontrollably, causing flooding even worse than usual. Kite’s solution to this incompetence is to require a freshman class that will take the place of Preparing for College and Careers that will teach students how to perfect the art of flushing the toilet. “Flushing 101” will be solidified next school year and will only be one semester long.
“The administration decided that something needed to be done after we started receiving over three complaints a day concerning the flushing situation,” Kite said. “We are hoping that this new class will decrease the amount of urine or fece-filled toilets.”
By the end of the eighteen weeks, Kite says there will be a two-part final, which includes a written test and a demonstration, and is required to pass in order to receive credit. The written test will consist of a detailed description on the three-step process of flushing a toilet, which is predicted to take each student approximately 5 minutes to complete.
SHS applied for a grant to receive brand new ceramic toilets from Home Depot to be used for the demonstration portion of the final. The toilet will be placed in the front of the room, and each student will individually stand in front of the class to display the knowledge they have learned in the past semester.
SHS custodian Kari Kleen can’t wait for students to finally flush the toilet on their own. She says that 50 percent of her job is going from stall to stall flushing the toilets. However, since the class will not begin for several months, she has some words of advice for until then.
“Before you’re gone, flush the john,” Kleen said.