Student, board take on bathroom bullies

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Nearly every day for the past 22 years, Sam Alipio's custodial crew at Waipahu High School has placed fresh rolls of toilet paper and paper towels in each of the dozen bathrooms each morning.

"As soon as we put it in, they take it out and throw it on the floor," Alipio said.

Roosevelt High School head custodian Willard Gouveia said: "We've got plenty of toilet paper, but if you put too much in, the kids — they just toss 'em all over. When we fill the soap, they just bust the dispensers. You put 'em back up, they break 'em."

Matthew McLane, a Leilehua High School senior who is the student representative on the Board of Education, is doing something to change the rampant problem.

McLane is proposing that the board require all public schools in Hawai'i to come up with individual plans to make sure their bathrooms are well-stocked, clean and safe.

His proposal is expected to be approved today

"For years, kids have been complaining that their bathrooms overall are just dirty and in some cases not safe," McLane said. "Especially for the underclassmen."

Catherine Uyeda, a senior at Roosevelt, has lots of friends who refuse to use the bathrooms.

"You just go in and come out smelling like you smoked a whole pack of cigarettes," she said.

Uyeda, instead, braves the gauntlet of smokers.

"When I gotta go, I gotta go."