Graffiti Gossip

It may be more of a girl thing.

But Penn Manor has a problem with graffiti.

Enter any girls bathroom at our school, and you’re bound to find that you have no choice but to giggle. Until you become the topic of the writing, then the tables turn.

Reading the stalls, you can learn a lot about fellow classmates. Who’s the local “hoe,” when so and so is having a baby, or even who is cheating on whom. And nine chances out of ten, what you’re reading probably isn’t true. Now I know some people love to draw attention to themselves, but seriously… we live in the Twenty-first Century. Can we grow up?

If you have a thought about someone, wouldn’t it be easier just to confront the person? I mean arguing on a bathroom stall? One, it’s immature, and two, it’s vandalizing. If you would get caught you’d be in just as much trouble if not more, than if you got into a fight.

Now if you’re lucky, every once in a while you’ll find a decent writing, for instance someone will draw a peace, love and happiness symbol or even some religious things.  Which is nice and all, and everyone has their own right to voice their opinions and beliefs, but not everyone has the same opinions and beliefs. This is also why religion is not allowed in school… it starts too many problems.  If you don’t believe it look at the second stall in the downstairs wing.

At our school, some things have been done to try and contain the problem. For instance, last year the housing and interiors class repainted one of the girls’ bathrooms in the school and the teacher’s bathroom. This contained the problem for awhile but kids just couldn’t hold back from temptation.

And then they tried black, just paint them black. It’s a good thought-most things won’t show up on black… until kids get smart enough and find that pencil shows up and even crayons show up on black paint. However, some kids have used metallic markers and have just carved into the stalls with a sharp object.

Now as simple as it sounds, I’ve found a solution.

My solution is chalkboard paint, and I’m convinced it would work. Parents paint their homes with it all the time to control little kids’ habits of coloring on the walls. All we’d have to do is paint the stalls in chalkboard paint, and put some chalk in the bathrooms. It almost sounds counterproductive, as if bathroom graffiti is being promoted, but janitors could erase the comments at the end of the day.

Yes, chalkboard paint does cost a little more, but it would make more sense to spend a little more money one time for a solution, rather then a smaller amount of money… every year. I mean let’s be honest, since people decided to be immature and vandalize the school, our bathrooms have been painted at least once every single year.  This year, we’re not even halfway through the school year, and at least one bathroom needed painted again.

Which is quite frankly, pathetic.

Either way, positive or negative, helpful or harmful, it’s vandalizing, it’s illegal and it’s stupid.

If you’re that bored, buy a notebook.

By Lyta Ringo