In my four years at Hays High, I’ve faced tough classes, bullies, friend problems, nasty lunches and awkward, humiliating moments. I’ve been through so much, but I can’t think of anything more horrifying, anything more disgusting and anything more annoying than going into the bathroom and searching for a stall that hasn’t been left with nastiness in the toilet.

When we are potty trained, we are taught to flush after we are finished (at least I hope people teach their kids to do this.) Is it really that hard, that time consuming to push the lever down before leaving the stall? It’s not.

Our plumbing is really bad in some areas. Sometimes the water pressure is just not enough to get everything down, but when this happens, we need to try again. Flush more than once, flush several times if needs be.

Custodians do their very best and keep our bathrooms nice and clean, so let’s make it easier on them by not leaving really disgusting stuff in nearly every single toilet.

Not flushing is rude and disrespectful. I feel genuinely embarrassed when I see people from other schools who are coming in for competitions after school going into our bathrooms. They probably think we are disgusting and careless.

Yes, there might be more important issues to focus on right now, but the cleanliness of the school is so vital to our health and well-being. We are teenagers, some of us are adults. Let’s act our age.

Even if you are in a hurry to get back to class, please take a few extra seconds to make sure everything is down the drain before you leave the stall. It’s just common courtesy and etiquette.

16bmathias@usd489.com