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Article by Aidan Naughton
The Dexter Community Schools Parent-Student Handbook defines vandalism as, “The willful or malicious destruction or defacing of school property or the property of others.”
In the fall of 2021, vandalism in school bathrooms became a trend nationwide on the social media platform TikTok. The bathroom vandalism trend was nicknamed ‘Devious Licks.’ Devious Licks included students clogging toilets, removing urinal dividers, stealing soap dispensers, and performing many more acts of reckless and uncalled for behavior. Despite the trend fading away on social media, vandalism in school bathrooms at Dexter High School has never stopped.
“It’s actually been pretty consistent all year long,” Principal Melanie Nowak said to The Squall.
Students admitted they are immune to all of the vandalism because of how often it happens. Nowak noted the sporadicness of the vandalism probably plays a role in that.
“It was kind of all over the place,” she said. “Especially with the boys’ bathrooms; it was all over the place. There was no rhyme or reason. Some days it was this one, some days it was that one, some days it was this. It was even the ones right across from the office. I don’t know. I’m perplexed.”
According to a Squall survey sent out toward the end of February, slightly more than 25% out of the 404 student responses said they had seen someone commit vandalism. However, just 17% of those students (18 out of 107) said they reported the vandalism to a teacher, administrator, or they have filled out a specific DHS Reporting Vandalism Google Form.
A new vandalism trend involves drawing or writing on walls, specifically in bathrooms, with Sharpies.
“I just think it’s an odd sense of expression,” Nowak said. “I mean here’s the thing: we have a class that honors that kind of artwork, and they do murals. If you really want to do that, get registered for Ms. Krickett’s [Advanced Drawing and Painting] class. Then you can do a mural that can stay on the wall forever, you don’t get in trouble for it, and you don’t have to sit in the bathroom to do it.”
The bathroom graffiti isn’t isolated to Dexter. A few consortium students have noticed Saline High School closing a bathroom for the past few weeks due to Sharpies, crayons, and markers being used all over the place.
“I can’t explain it,” Nowak said. “It’s a little weird to me. Again, I don’t like to spend time in the bathroom just drawing on the wall. I just think it’s odd. I don’t know how to explain that, so if someone can explain that to me, I’m all open to hear about it so I can help remedy that situation.”
The Squall spent time canvasing DHS bathrooms to see what variations of vandalism was taking place and where it seemed to be most prevalent. In two boys bathrooms, Among Us-like characters were drawn. One character was drawn on a hand dryer, something that isn’t easily remedied with a new paint job.
How does the administration deal with freshly-painted art?
“We have been trying to take care of it as soon as possible because we found if even just a little drawing like this is left up there for a couple days people will keep adding to it,” Nowak said. “So, if it’s one little figurine, it will turn into five in a couple days if we don’t take care of the first one.”
Aside from drawing on walls, other common types of vandalism include breaking a toilet by putting objects in the toilet and attempting to flush it down. What kind of person wakes up in the morning and decides to intentionally break a toilet at school? Based on the number of instances, it seems more Dreads than people think.
Administrators admitted the kids who commit these acts of vandalism and destruction are rarely caught. The clean-up and cost of the damage varies, but it can be incredibly expensive.
“It really depends on if it’s a quick paint job, a couple bucks, but some of them have been more costly,” Nowak said about the minimum-maximum price tag. “Like there was an incident with one of the toilets and they actually had to go in and repair some plumbing which was a couple $100. When that happens over and over again it gets more costly. That doesn’t even include the man hours for someone to go in there and actually do the repairs. That’s just the cost of parts, not labor. Some of it, again, if you just had to paint over something really quickly, a couple bucks for the paint. Soap dispensers, yeah one might only be $30, but if you do that 12 times what’s 30×12?” Editor’s note: That’s $360 for replacing soap dispensers.
“One week we had 18,” Nowak continued. “At the beginning of the year, there was one week where we had to place 18 in one week.”
In terms of punishment, Dexter has been using restorative practices whenever possible for the past few years. That includes doing community service rather than detentions or suspension.
“When we look at an event and the effect, if I have to sit in a room for an hour after school for something I did, that’s not going to teach me a lesson,” Nowak said. “I’m probably going to be ticked off that you are making me sit in a room for something I did, and you didn’t write your wrong. At least if you vandalized a bathroom and did something squirrely in there and there’s toilet paper all over and something else, you have to come in the morning and help Ms. Maria; you can at least see what she does on a daily basis to keep this place clean. Whether or not that makes you learn your lesson or not, that’s all individual.”
Essentially, the community service aspect allows the offenders to see what they have done through a different lens. And, rather than what some would call a punitive and ineffective punishment such as detention, the student has a real opportunity to right a wrong and learn something.
“Maria takes a lot of pride in keeping this building clean and safe for everyone,” Nowak added. “It’s more than just vandalism, it’s more than just drawing on the wall. Now Maria has to clean it up. Now Miles has to go paint over that when he should be doing this, or she should be doing this. It’s a person behind those so restored practices are trying to right that wrong. Trying to restore what you did and can see a different perspective. Like, crap, when I threw toilet paper all over the bathroom, it’s not just going to clean up itself. Someone has to do that.”
Is there a perfect solution? Nowak believes there is one and it’s pretty simple.
“I guess the perfect solution is people respect the building and it takes care of itself, right?,” she said. “The solution is we don’t have vandalism at all anymore because people respect people and the building. The perfect remedy would be that everyone forms within themselves, realizes what’s going on, realizes their impact, and strengthens the community of the entire school body.
“Honestly, if I had the perfect remedy, we would have done it months ago,” Nowak continued. “That’s why I’m reaching out to students. That’s why I’m reaching out in different ways. How can we fix this? I don’t know how to make someone care. I don’t know how to make freshman boys not want to use a bathroom that’s not disgusting. How do you make someone do that? I don’t know.”
