From the high school reserves: Writings on the Wall

I was looking in my various mail folders tonight while unable to sleep and found some of my newspaper articles that I had sent to myself while working on the paper in high school. For those of you who know me in college, you're used to some of my current snarky ramblings in The Oak Leaves, but I had forgotten that trait had started early for me. Here's one of my best pieces from high school. Enjoy the pun at the end - I remember being so proud at that. Remember, I was 18, a senior in high school and thought I was hot shit. :)


Writings on the Wall; do they bother you at all?
by JESSICA HICKERSON
News editor

With the smoke, hovering administrators and over-use of hairspray and body spray that go along with the gossiping girls in the bathrooms here at North County, I tend to venture there only on rare emergencies.

To walk into one of the two open girl’s bathrooms is what I would imagine walking into a prison must feel like. The lock of one door is completely missing, leaving only a hole with a deadbolt cutting through it.

Between classes, there is always a gaggle of girls there talking about who wants to fight who, who’s pregnant, etc. Annoyingly, they always stand in front of the sinks that work to fix their hair. Most obviously don’t have enough common sense to go to one of the sinks that doesnt work (but still has a perfectly good mirror) so that people who are hygiene aware can actually wash their hands.

The most annoying and probably laughable thing about the bathrooms though is the reading material you get as you are doing your business. Scribbles of pencil, sharpies, and even etchings “adorn” the plastic stall walls. Most public bathrooms have some sort of graffiti on the wall, but high schools, especially North County, have to hold a record.

In the upstairs bathroom, in one of the stalls, the walls read “this skool sucks ---” Now, I would have to say that obviously the school is not doing its job if ANYONE in high school still spells the place that they have been attending for at least nine year, “skool.”

In another stall in the downstairs bathroom, there are two whole paragraphs from two very needy girls wanting advice about what they should do in a problem relationship. What’s even worse is that someone answered them!! In all honesty, would you take advice from people who spend all of their five minutes between classes in the smoggy bathroom?

However, some of these writings carry good messages. Across the toilet from the childish misspelling of school a scrawling reads, “STOP SMOKING," in big silver letters. I give kudos to this particular writing.

Writing on a bathroom wall is the lowest form of a call for attention. If you really need to write something on the wall of a bathroom while performing a bodily function, I seriously recommend a visit to the guidance office.

Perhaps they would not be so bad if correct grammar and at least correct spelling were used. There are a plethora of misused words, such as “their” instead of “they’re” and “freshman” instead of “freshmen,” which happens to be a very simple plural rule. My favorite is a certain phrase that is scrawled on the inside of one of the stall doors, “Sophmores suck.” I am not even going to explain that one, since half of the population of the school always spells the title of the tenth-graders wrong.

I highly doubt that anyone who goes into the bathroom to take care of personal business actually wants to read what’s on the wall. Personally, I don’t care who hates who, who loves who, and which sexual preference “rocks.” In all reality, those notions will probably be changed with maturity anyway.

Next time you’re in the bathroom looking at the desecrated stall walls, think to yourself and laugh about those who obviously think school is just a social function. And to those of you who think you need to write on the bathroom walls, think about who reads it and understand this: no one gives a crap.