Students suffer after vandals trash bathrooms

Vandals have caused thousands of dollars of damage to CVHS bathrooms, forcing school officials to close several of them and restrict access to the others. 

Principal Blaine Torpey sent an email to students and parents on Thursday, Sept. 16 about the harmful TikTok trend: “devious licks.” 

In the past week, the “devious licks” trend on TikTok has taken the internet by storm and CVHS students have begun to participate. The trend consists of people stealing things from their schools and generally vandalizing. 

CVHS students have been stealing hand sanitizers, toilet paper, soap dispensers, and various other bathroom items. 

The school is trying to end the theft and vandalism but many students are upset by the new bathroom rules and the actions of their peers. 

“I am pretty disappointed in the actions. And it is very frustrating to have to wait in a line to get into the bathroom in the first place, and also with the bathrooms not having soap, we are not able to wash our hands which is spreading even more germs, while in this pandemic,” said sophomore Diego Perez. 

“I feel terrible about the bathrooms being closed. I want to be able to use the bathroom in peace and wash my hands, but there is no soap… I feel violated,” said junior Tharen Hilliard.

The lack of materials in the bathrooms annoys the student body. Students want to feel safe and provided for in the bathrooms and the thefts deny them of these necessities. 

Some of the bathroom rules include limited capacity inside bathrooms at a time, no backpacks inside, and stricter rules about going during class: one at a time, sign in and out. As a result, teachers have been asked to change their classroom bathroom policies. 

 “It is really unfair to our custodial staff. We should respect the people there to support us. Everybody is impacted,” said Superintendent Parvin Ahmadi. “The money spent fixing the bathrooms is money we now can’t use to support other programs.” 

“I have been asked by Mr. Torpey to limit the number of people I let out during class time,” said English teacher Gautam Premnath. 

Along with these stricter rules, many of the bathrooms around CVHS are closed or shielded by a security guard. As more and more bathrooms close, the longer the line grows for the ones that are open. Currently, these rules mostly apply to the boys bathrooms, while the girls bathrooms remain unchanged.

 “We have such wonderful students at CVHS, and there are many role models that can remind everyone that we are better than that. We don’t need to jump on the bandwagon when a challenge comes up…In the end, we must remember that it is very few students doing this,” said Ahmadi.

Melissa Boussaroque, Alani Maligaya, Jennifer Mi, Jenna Nosseir, Drew Paxman, Sam Scott, Jessica Truong, Leland Tsai, Ethan To, and Maya Wong contributed to this report.