The number of vandals is unknown, the reason behind the damage and defacement of school property remains a mystery, but their actions have not gone unnoticed. Students, teachers and especially those in the custodial services are all saying enough is enough. 

Students like Dominick Zambelli and Brenden Howard have been dealing with it for the majority of the year and they are tired of it.

“It takes a long time to get to class now,” Zambelli said. “There is only one bathroom now. By the time you find it, use it and go back to class, it’s already too late and you miss out on a lesson or activity.”

Students, mainly males, are having trouble managing their time because it takes longer than a regular passing time to use the restroom. They must choose between accepting a tardy and missing class or waiting until they get home because there just isn’t enough time in the day.

“It’s not funny anymore,” Howard said. “It’s simple enough to be able to do our thing, do our business. We can all agree it’s just gone too far.”

Howard and the rest of the student body aren’t the only ones who believe that it has gone too far. Kyle Hitsman, head of the custodial department, has seen and dealt with the aftermath of what’s been happening first hand.

“What hasn’t been going on,” Hitsman said jokingly. “We’ve had carvings in the stalls, broken dispensers off the walls, paper products shoved down the urinals, toilet paper set on fire, feces on the ground, shattered mirrors and even broken sinks.”

Most students deal with the annoyance of not being able to use the bathrooms while Hitsman has to put in the work to solve the problem time and time again because problems keep popping up left and right.

“It’s just hard to keep up on things right now, which is the biggest issue we’re having,” Hitsman said. “We’re short staffed at the moment and we’re constantly having to order new parts and reinstall them all for the materials to get broken a day or two later.”

Hitsman and his team have to go in, analyze and clean up all that’s been done.  This is no easy job, especially with less workers and more responsibility. 

“There’s a lot of kids wandering the building and we’re having other areas be affected because there’s not much supervision going on,” Hitsman said. “I’m not sure if it’s a certain group of kids or what’s going on, but we’re just having a lot of vandalism in general. It’s not just in the bathrooms.”

English nine teacher, Dacia Albaugh, has been speaking out to all students about the vandalism and she wants it to end. Albaugh was involved in something students may call the chase heard around the school. Or at least everyone’s 4th hour. 

Albaugh was about to eat her lunch when she heard about a sink in the girls bathroom that was overflowing. Being the persistent, problem solving person she is, she went to go see the problem.  Sure enough, someone had clogged the sink so she took care of it and left to go eat lunch. 

As she left, she heard a repetitive, thundering  crash and saw a tumbling trash can leave a mess in its wake. Four boys bolted once they saw her and in outrage, she bounded up the stairs, three at a time, yelling for them to stop. She chased them up the stairs near the library, across the main hallway until losing them in pod six. Her pursuit was successful thanks to the cameras.

“I was [exasperated].” Albaugh said. “This was the third or fourth time kids have trashed our stairs. It happened a couple other times behind pod four right by my room, just food and garbage everywhere. There was chocolate milk on the side of the wall, dripping down the stairs. In my opinion, that’s straight up vandalism. It’s not funny. It’s not a prank.”

This school year started with a TikTok trend known as the devious lick prank being the driving force behind the vandalism. But now, no one really knows why it’s happening.

“Overall, I think the damage is just as close to the same [to the start of the year],” Hitsman said. “The only difference is that we don’t know why it’s happening.

With or without motive, most students know  that what’s happening isn’t appropriate for a high school environment and it’s not the first year either. All schools and classes could recall a time where something like this happened, it’s just about how long it takes for it to stop.

“I think we will grow out of it soon,” Albaugh said. If you remember the senior class when they were freshmen, they were the main culprits, the ‘infamous poopers’. After a little while, things got much better and it all blew over.”

Luckily, the problem has begun to slow down and things are looking brighter for the school. But, will it stay that way for the rest of the year? In this crazy time of masks and quarantines, the last thing we need is another problem that lasts long and becomes an adaptation students have to take.

“Honestly, I just hope at some point in this year, we just get to a better point,” Hitsman said. “I hope there’s just more respect for the building and a little more school pride going forward.”