By Stacey Wells ’15

Using the bathroom during the school day is an ordinary thing for most—if not all—students. They enter the bathroom, do their business, wash their hands and then … wait in line to use the malfunctioning hand dryer. Most of the time, especially during lunch, there will be crowds of people waiting to use a single dryer. And that’s on a good day.

Students handle this major inconvenience in a variety of ways. Some will groan and attempt to wipe their hands on their jeans before they trudge back to class. Others unsuccessfully try to dry their sopping wet hands with toilet paper, which leaves them with lovely little scraps of tissue stuck to their hands.

The rest of the students, wearing grim faces and heaving sighs, try to summon up hope that the hand dryer might just work. They watch as its sad “puff puff” of air lightly breezes over their hands, evaporating about one percent of the water.

Senior Phil Towellete shares the feelings of many other students. “I just hate it,” snapped Towellete. “You’re standing in line forever, and then the hand dryer doesn’t even work!”

Other concerns students seem to have revolve around a very important issue—safety. Last spring a group of freshman girls weren’t able to dry their hands sufficiently, and while in the hallway they made contact with several people, getting arms and clothing soaking wet. Severe nasty comments and aggressive behavior ensued.

“It was really scary and dangerous,” commented Jenny Brown. “I am now terrified of the hand dryers. We need another option.”

A few years ago, there was a revolutionary device stocked in each and every bathroom—paper towels. These thick sheets of paper were able to dry students’ hands extremely fast and even allowed them to return to class in a reasonable amount of time—which of course is every student’s goal.

Students believe that there is a necessity for a definite change in how Sherwood treats their bathrooms. Paper towels must be reinstalled—before it’s too late.