Vandalism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, entails “willful or malicious destruction or defacement of public or private property.” Within any high school, it is inevitable that there will be vandalism present. From hate speech and obscene drawings to stolen and destroyed items, vandalism continues to rampage bathrooms around Green Hope High School. 

These acts of vandalism, often in the form of written slurs and hate speech, foster hostile environments around the school. Sarah El-Shafei (’25) recalled a harrowing experience around vandalism. “One day, as I was going into a bathroom stall, I was met with ‘fat, ugly and stupid’ written across the door. When I saw that, I was immediately distraught. I thought ‘What if someone sees this and is horribly affected by this?’ I wasn’t shocked by the statement on the wall though because it’s a common occurrence within every bathroom in this school,” she said.  

The vandalism remained on the stall for days, with  the phrase “you are” added in front of what was already written. El-Shafei explained how its continual presence disrupted her. “As I returned to that stall a few days later, the potential harm that would be caused was only compounded by a statement that would be directed to the reader. It was a weird experience.” 

Aside from that incident, El-Shafei also shared her experiences with destruction around other school bathrooms. “I would often go into the bathroom to find that there was no soap at all on the wall. The dispenser was completely taken off the wall. It’s really inconvenient when that happens because then I won’t have any soap at all to use.”

On the other side of El-Shafei’s experience, an anonymous student* provided insight as to why they and other students might have written phrases such as “fat, ugly and stupid” across the walls of bathroom stalls.

“I view it as a form of expression,” they said. “I don’t consider it a destruction of school property and I don’t think if I get in trouble. I don’t care if I get in trouble either; it was my speech and expression, and I should be able to say what I wish.” 

They also explained a common motivating factor that drives other students to commit acts of vandalism. “I know many people just do it because they don’t think they have much freedom in school. They do it to rebel, to have fun. They never get caught anyways.”

The school facilities are meant to serve as a safe and accepting place for everybody, and custodians are forced  rid stalls of written profanities in order to uphold such standards. A Green Hope janitor, who wished to remain anonymous,  said, “I often see the Nazi swastikas and other hate speech drawn on the bathroom stalls. It really is a disgrace to see hate like this spread around schools, especially since our school has many groups that are targeted by those vandalisms. Other times, I see school-inappropriate drawings of body parts, curse words, or cruel references to a group of people and other school-inappropriate things. Whenever we have to clean up these vandalisms, we must abrase them until it’s gone. It’s a very tedious process.”

The experiences of custodians around Green Hope was worsened with the rise of the 2021 Tik-Tok trend “devious licks,” where students would post videos of themselves stealing or destroying items from schools. Seemingly glorifying vandalism, schools around the United States were all impacted by this frenzy. 

The janitor explained the economic costs that accumulated from the trend. “A few years ago, when there was that trend [devious licks] on the internet where students would steal and destroy stuff around the school, we were livid. I’d often go into the bathrooms to find soap dispensers missing from the walls or rolls of toilet paper shredded and thrown all over the floor,” said the janitor. “It got to the point where much of the staff didn’t want to fix this issue anymore because they knew that their efforts would be destroyed anyway. It was a very expensive problem to fix. It’s [vandalism] been an issue and it will always be an issue.” 

Vandalism, including hate speech and destruction of school property, continues to be a significant issue within Green Hope High School, as well as many schools across the country. These acts not only damage the physical environment but also foster hostile and unwelcoming atmospheres for students, undermining the very purpose of education.