Primarily over Spring Break, several changes were made to the interior of Camas High School (CHS). Hand dryers have replaced paper towels in several bathrooms, and window fogging has been added to hallway-facing windows of CHS classrooms.
The change from paper towels to hand dryers has struck a bit of controversy among CHS students.
“I use the paper towels to fix my makeup, pat my face; as a germaphobe, the hand dryers scare me,” CHS junior Keira Tyler said.
The plan to replace paper towels in bathrooms had been in motion for a couple of months.
According to CHS Associate Principal Owen Sanford, this change would benefit the cleanliness of the bathrooms. Many students demonstrate problems with cleaning up after themselves in the school bathrooms, with many students unwilling to properly throw away their trash.
“I have to go in there and pick up paper towels quite a bit because students apparently have a hard time picking up after themselves. [Air dryers] get rid of that issue,” Sanford said.
Facilities also presented this idea to admin as a “money-saving” idea. Although it does not necessarily cost much for the building, this decision was primarily based on hopes of decreasing the amount of waste produced by students in the bathrooms.
Students seem to brush off the problem of waste production and are adamantly against this change.
“You know school air? Have you ever heard of school air? You get oily; you need paper towels,” CHS junior Mariana Villaluz said.
Additionally, window fogging has been added to the vertical windows in CHS classrooms.
After Sanford visited Washougal High School about eight years ago, he saw that they had this system, and wanted to implement it into CHS; it has now been added.
“It consistently came up as a concern from students and staff when it came to a lockdown and making sure nobody is visible in the classroom,” Sanford said. “We made the request to facilities and they were able to get it done pretty quickly.”
These are not the only changes that Sanford hopes to integrate into the CHS system.
A safer, more accurate way to account for students during an evacuation, for example, is yet to be implemented. Sanford hopes this change can happen in the near future.
While these changes may be debatable for some, student safety and aiming to increase campus efficiency come first in the eyes of the decision-makers.
