This school year, Doherty has been experiencing a number of vandalism incidents in the bathrooms. Writing, drawings, and random scribbles scatter the stall walls. It has gotten to the point where some bathrooms are closed and off limites for clean-up, and an assembly was held for all students from the principal, Mrs. Lana Flenniken, to go over the school policy.

However, as of today, the drawings are still prevalent. Blotches of paint cover the old pen-drawings only to leave a blank canvas for misbehaved students to write again. Whenever students discuss the issue amongst themselves, they almost always seem distressed or bothered by the “closed to vandalism” signs that only cause them to walk a long distance from their classrooms to find an open bathroom. So, on January 19th, the multi-media section of Doherty’s journalism staff decided to ask some questions to students about what they think should be done about Doherty’s vandalism issue.
Sabrina Schestack says she sees vandalism a lot on the bathroom walls. When asked what she would do about the issue if she were the principal of Doherty, she said: “That’s

a good question. I wanna say more consequences…” Schestack isn’t the only one who said there should be consequences. Another student by the name of Samantha Dawson said that they see vandalism a lot in the bathrooms as well, “all the bathrooms have something.”
“If you caught someone writing something, what would you do?”
“Probably make them clean the bathrooms… all the bathrooms.”
“So, basically just more consequences?”
“Yeah.”
However, some students believe that there should be alternatives. Doherty High School has two large white boards in the hallways, and one of the girl’s bathrooms have a mini white board in the stall. Grace Gregg stated, “…People they still [vandalize] even though there is a white board in the bathroom… If you add more whiteboards [in the bathrooms], I feel like that could probably cure the problem.” Although whiteboards would be a possible idea, paying for whiteboards for each bathroom – boys, girls and gender neutral – would take a while, and there is no guarantee that the whiteboards would be used.
Erin Ahnfeldt, a Doherty high school English teacher, said something very different from the students. “I think the way Mrs. Flenniken has handled it has been great. She has lo

cked up bathrooms where there’s been problems, she made announcements to the students to try to consider the fact that you need to be respectful about the bathrooms… I think that both locking the bathrooms and making announcements is a very good idea.”