Students Want Clean Bathrooms

What do New Haven Public School students want? Clean and functional school bathrooms. When do they want it? According to a vote by the citywide student council: NOW. 

Fifty high-schoolers who attend seven different schools around New Haven cast that vote and made that plea about chronically unkempt and vandalized bathrooms, at the March council meeting held last Friday at the Floyd Little Athletic Center.

The citywide council members represent their own school government organizations. The council is led by Board of Education student representatives and Wilbur Cross students John Carlos Serana Musser and Harmony Solomon Cruz-Bustamante. 

Friday’s meeting tasked students with voting on their first priority issue to tackle alongside the school board, from the four Hope and Victory Directives established by the group last year.

Beginning in break-out group discussions, Hill Regional Career High School students Madisyn Robinson, Jaylen Lopes, Chyna Lopes, and Naylanee Alejandro were torn about which directive to prioritize. Directive one aims at bringing ​“power back to the people” by increasing collaboration on school decisions between the district and its students. Directive two calls for clean and accessible school facilities. Directive three for curriculums and class lessons to be relevant and culturally responsive. Directive four calls for investment in safer schools, including promoting restorative justice and deescalation efforts and peer-to-peer mediation. (Read the full four directives here.)

“We need that so bad,” Alejandro said about directive two.

Meanwhile Jaylen focused on the third item. He said he appreciated taking a personal finance course last school year, but he would want to update it to include more hands-on practice in how to file taxes, apply for grants, and check credit reports.

Though, he continued, he’d also like to prioritize the bathroom-focused directive ​“because we only have one gender neutral bathroom.”

The students voted by scanning a QR code.

Engineering and Science University Magnet School Sophomore Saket Aliminate told his peers he cast his vote for clean and functioning facilities because his school currently only has one functioning boys bathroom due to vandalism.

He suggested that the district implement an e‑pass system to track who is using bathrooms and when to hold students accountable. 

A different table of Metropolitan Business Academy students opted for focusing instead on the ​“lessons that make sense” directive. Career senior Alexa Elias agreed saying 90-minute periods are inefficient because ​“for half of the class we don’t do anything.” 

In the final 15 minutes, Serana Musser announced that the facilities directive came out on top with 50 percent of the votes.

He then asked the group, ​“What does that look like?” 

Elias said the school’s custodial stuff should be refreshed on expectations. She said that when she has arrived to school in the morning, in the first hour bathrooms aren’t stocked with soap and paper towels. She typically has to visit a teacher on the third floor who stocks her classroom daily with those items. She added that maintenance requests are never fulfilled. 

ESUMS freshman Sham Mahaini agreed that the schools seem to be ​“ignorant” about keeping toilet tissue and soap in stock.

Another student named Abraham put the blame more on students who mess up the bathroom. They said they should receive punishments for vandalism. Others agreed adding that students found to be vandalizing facilities consistently should be charged for the cost of the vandalism.

Metro student Katherine Xilotl-Portillo said their school’s bathrooms get locked for periods of the day, which other students confirmed also happens at other schools. That leaves students to use a single bathroom with overflowing piles of bathroom trash and dirty stalls student after student shared.

“We can pass policy for the board to vote on,” Serana Musser said, ​“to keep our peers more accountable.” 

As students waited to be bussed back to their respective buildings after the meeting, they spoke about recent school achievements or projects being working on. 

Aliminate said ESUMS recently hosted a fair to auction off 20 art pieces made by students; funds went in part to the student council and in part to the artists. Metro junior Natalie Alas reported that her school’s new principal has been off to a strong start by setting boundaries that have encouraged ​“old situations to be put to a stop” and bringing consistency back.

A New Haven Academy student said students there collaborated with Planned Parenthood to stock the office with condoms and lubricants. Cross senior Reem Saood announced the school’s student council won a first place exemplary citizen impact award from the Connecticut Association of Student Councils for hosting a successful soccer game tailgate. 

Assistant Superintendent Paul Whyte announced to students that election season is soon upon them for the next Board of Education student representative to replace graduating senior Harmony Solomon Cruz-Bustamante. Candidates must be sophomores and New Haven residents; the election takes place May 31. Alejandro, for one, expressed interest in running for the student rep seat.