Last month, vandalism to the Atherton boys’ bathroom prompted the administration to impose some rules changes. And it appears those changes have been effective in eliminating the problem.

The vandalism caused the bathroom to be swamped with water and toilet paper, which led to it leaking into the ground-floor classrooms.

“There was toilet paper everywhere which clogged up the toilet. Then they ripped the partition off the wall,” Assistant Principal of Student Life Rebecca Hodge said.

This created a stir in the Mid-Pacific community with students in Atherton having to sign in and out on a paper whenever they needed to use the restroom.

“The administration has teachers keeping track of who uses the restroom for now so if they hear something, then they will say something,” Hodge said.

But as of October 13, with the situation improved, the signout sheet mandate was lifted.

“The administration changed it because we want students to be more responsible for their actions while teachers monitor the bathrooms,” Hodge said.

The community has some thoughts on how they felt about their school getting vandalized as well.

“It caused a huge mess for custodians and janitors to have to clean up, which is extremely unfortunate,” senior Kalanikapu Aona said.

While lasting only a few weeks, the signout expectations were considered troublesome for some students.

“It’s kind of inconvenient now that you have to sign it and out,” junior Toren Rogers said.

“I now have to sign a paper which is somewhat of a hassle, but if it helps, I will make do,” Aona said.

Many people wonder: was there a motive?

“I think truly what motivates them is being bored and wanting to pass time,” Aona said.

Some students think the problem stemmed from not being able to move more freely.

“I think the school should allow these kids to have off campus privileges, with parental approval, instead of a study hall so they can regroup themselves with a free space during a free time,” Aona said.

With this incident concluded, new lessons will be learned by our community to hopefully prevent another incident in the future.

“I feel that it is important for students to understand why we need to take care of our property. Things can get out of control just from playing around and we need to make sure that if you are playing around, it’s not damaging to yourself, others, or the space” Hodge said.