During January of last school year, all restrooms, except for the commons, were shut down by Dr. Mike Havener at one point due to vandalism. For many students, this simply meant that they had to take a longer route to get to the restroom. But for Cameron Hankinson, senior at the time, this meant he no longer had anywhere to go to escape the overwhelming stress of school. 

“Before they shut everything down, I was drawing [in the gender neutral restroom] on the walls already with pencil,” Hankinson said. “I had spent a lot of time there, [when I was in] a darker mental place. I would make giant murals in the bathroom during lunch because it was a good way to pass the time.” 

The second the restrooms got shut down last school year due to vandalization, Hankinson said he wanted to find a solution so other students could still enjoy the bathrooms like him. He decided to create bathroom murals as an alternative to keep students from drawing inappropriate words and pictures in the stalls. However, since the murals have been painted, the vandalization has not stopped. The Art Club has had to shut down the art hallway restrooms due to the continued vandalism.

 “Once they shut everything down, I was like, ‘If we just put cool [things] on there, then maybe [people] would be less inclined to write over it, or at least harmful [stuff]. People would be less inclined to draw cuss words and stuff.” 

Hankinson joined the Art Club shortly after his idea, and proposed his plan to club sponsor Leslie Benben and other club members. The club quickly jumped on board and pitched the idea to Dr. Josh Flores, senior grade level principal at the time. But, Hankinson said he owes the existence of the project to Principal Dr. Mike Havener. 

 “We had a meeting with Dr. Flores and asked him what we would need to do, and what we could do, and there were some boundaries. It was a fairly long process,” Hanksinson said. “At first, they wanted to give us a cork board that we could post pictures on and put that in the bathroom. But that was some bullshit. So we went to talk to Havener, and [he] was the real reason we got to do it.” 

After the Art Club got approval from Havener, the project was in full swing. They started with the art hallway restrooms and the gender neutral restroom by South Journalism. Molly Hoyer, senior at the time, said it was a way to create relaxing visuals for students to use as an escape. The gender neutral bathroom had a theme of Dr. Suess, while the art hallway bathrooms reflect uplifting and positive paintings. The girls restroom is full of music notes and motivational quotes and the boys bathroom is painted with fun, entertaining art pieces. However, the murals have not stopped students from graffitiing on the walls. Since the murals have been in place, students have decided to draw over the artwork, causing the art hallway bathrooms to be shut down again.  She said she is disappointed that students would graffiti over other students’ hard work. 

“We began this idea to counteract the vandalism, and the graffiti started happening immediately after [we started the murals],” Hoyer said. “It broke my heart, honestly. We were trying to celebrate differences, and all of sudden, the entire idea was passed over for other people’s enjoyment.” 

Ray Cano, head custodian, said he doesn’t understand why people vandalize bathrooms, and that it makes his job more difficult. While he thinks the bathroom murals were a great idea, he believes the art work almost made the original graffiti problem worse. 

“It’s sad,” Cano said. “I understand where they were trying to go with [the art murals], but I think it just added to [the issue]. I just wish kids would show a little more respect to their own school.” 

Some students believe the graffitied words can be hurtful and offensive. Grey Nolan, Art Club member, said they have had to spend their time cleaning slurs off the bathroom walls. 

“Some of [the graffiti] is really vulgar and disgusting words,” Nolan said. “It’s really upsetting to see because I know a lot of people have put so much time into working on this project and it’s [hard] to see other students come in and diminish what they have been trying to do.” 

Leslie Benben said she wishes students would think about others before drawing such meaningless words and pictures. She said the words students write can offend others and counteract the main goal of the bathroom murals project. 

“People don’t realize how hurtful it can be,” Benben said. “[By drawing graffiti] you really are hurting people, and little things [like that] do make a difference in [the Art Club’s] overall mission. A lot of people need [to have] awareness of what they draw [and] how [it] can impact somebody else.” 

The Art Club aims to have the murals done by the 2023-2024 school year and open the art bathrooms. Benben said once they are finished, she wants to put up a sign that lets students know their overall goal with the murals. Then, she plans on trying to get the art hallway restrooms reopened. 

“It upsets me more because of the effort and time the kids have put in [to the murals] and how [the graffiti] impacts them,” Benben said. “It makes me think of how many kids the [graffiti is hurting] that aren’t saying anything. I just think it doesn’t have a purpose.”