Ms. Castillo, Claremont High School’s first and only female PE teacher, was on her way to her office, enjoying the crisp November air as she prepared for another long week of coaching physical education at CHS. It was the day after the Homecoming game, and she was looking forward to a return to normalcy. As she unlocked the girls’ locker room, she noticed a few things. First, the bathrooms were filthy, and there were still some black pebbles from the turf on the floor. Secondly, there was a lingering funk in the air, like something had rotted and had not been cleaned. It is probably nothing, she told herself, as she rounded the corner into her office—only to find something wholly unexpected. Someone had left a turd on her seat.
On November 1, referees from other schools had come to CHS for the annual Homecoming football game. In the past, they had stayed in the boys’ locker rooms, but were recently relocated to Castillo’s office. Whether purposeful or accidental, when the referees did their business on that chair, they neglected to clean up after themselves.
“I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt by saying it wasn’t intentional,” Castillo said. “How someone can do that and not notice I don’t know, but I’m giving them the benefit.”
While the mess was cleaned up by the janitorial staff by the next day, the incident left students perplexed. Zarish Zaidi, a freshman in Ms. Castillo’s zero period PE class, recounts her experience.
“I remember we had to start changing halfway through the class period because the janitors were cleaning something,” Zaidi said. “I didn’t know it was poop though.”
It was not the first time these particular referees had caused trouble, though nothing this drastic had happened before. When they were put in the boys’ locker rooms, they got multiple complaints from male PE teachers for leaving a mess and disrespecting the space. Having few alternatives, the sports administrator sent them to the girls’ locker room, hoping they would behave better. Clearly, the opposite happened.
“I need the support of the female community at CHS to say these men should not be in my office,” Castillo said. “I mean, these are full-grown men, making a mess in the girl’s locker room. This is not a place they should be.”
The incident, though wholly unexpected, follows a long trend of disrespect and neglect that the girls’ locker room has faced. Many of these issues are still ongoing today.
Take, for example, the water fountains. It is commonly known among female students at CHS that the water filters in the girls’ locker room stopped working a long time ago. In fact, it has been over three years since those changing in the girls’ locker room have had access to clean, filtered water. So why has the issue not been fixed? It is not that difficult to replace a filter; the fountain in the hallway between the 400s and 800s quads broke down a few weeks ago at the time this article was being published, yet it was up and running the next school day. Dr. O’Connor, who was principal just two years ago, had assured students that the issue was taken care of, but when technicians came to fix the filters, they found there were not any to begin with. Through either ignorance or neglect on behalf of the administration, filters were never ordered and the girls’ locker room was left with broken fountains for the years that followed.
Since O’Connor retired, no administration action has been taken to remedy the issue. In the two years since Dr. Mitchell has taken office, the issue was never brought up again. It seems that the lack of filtered water in the girls’ locker room had been ignored, pushed aside by newer and more timely matters that demand immediate attention. That being said, a busy schedule is no excuse for the administration’s failure to address this critical issue. Thus, it is up to the students to make it something they cannot continue to ignore.
“I hope that the administrators will get on [the issue] and stop lying to the students about having filtered water,” Castillo said. “I’ve asked these questions and gotten no answers. And I think the community, you guys, the students and the community, need to be the ones to seek that answer. They listen to you guys. They don’t listen to employees.”
Castillo explained how students could get in contact with the administrators on the school board.
“There’s board meetings every third Thursday of the month,” Castillo said. “You go to the district office that’s located on Indian Hill and San Jose street, right across the street from San Antonio High School, and you can get informed there. There’ll be time for students to speak, and you can bring up these issues to be heard.”
Standing up and being heard is the only way for the issues facing our community to be noticed and put in the spotlight. The only reason CHS has a softball field is because students advocated for it. Similarly, the only way the water fountain filters in the girls’ locker room will be fixed, is if students demand change. Administrators must be held responsible for ensuring a safe and clean environment for both students and teachers—or else three more years will pass without any change to this “crappy” situation.
