Woodstock Vandals Stun Building and Grounds Crew

A string of recent vandalism events prior to break decimated the boys bathroom across from room 19. The bathroom is now closed until further notice.

The sinks and mirror were ripped off the wall, soap dispensers were broken, soap was splattered across the floor, trash was placed in the urinals, paper was stuffed in the toilet, and the floor was flooded.

Unfortunately, bathroom vandalism incidents have become an everyday occurrence. Paul Woodman, manager of building and grounds, says he was “discouraged that it was happening at this level.”

This year, Woodman and the rest of the ground crew are used to seeing missing soap dispensers, graffiti on the walls, toilet paper stuffed in toilets, and blown open milk cartons. However, after walking into the bathroom across from room 19, Woodman did something unusual. He simply walked away.

Woodman left the mess in the bathroom in order to send a message to the students. “I wanted students to see the destruction and understand what was going on,” says Woodman. This is what prompted him to take pictures of the incident and tape them onto the front of the bathroom door.

As a result of this most recent bathroom incident, the buildings and grounds crew spent 2 hours and 15 minutes trying to undo the vandalism. It took a total of 12 mop buckets to clean up the soap alone. Roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes were spent unclogging the toilets. Woodman believes that the cost of the damages rounded to about $360.

“It’s really wearing on us, you’re making us tired,” says Woodman.

Since the start of the school year, the grounds crew has been as busy as ever trying to give students a clean and safe environment. Incidents similar to this one tend to impact the ground crew the most, due to the additional workload created.

“Our job is to give you the best environment for your school years here at Woodstock,” says Woodman, but the recent string of vandalism incidents have left him and his crew discouraged.

Mr. Smail and the grounds crew are asking students to report incidents as soon as they see them. Do your part in stopping the vandalism from recurring.