What's wrong with your school bathrooms?

Less Vapin' More Poopin' 📈📈

If vaping in the bathrooms prevents students from using the bathrooms, or it’s gross to see vape pods in toilets, the solution is making it cooler to poop than to vape.

At your next assembly or pep rally, or even at the beginning of a class or at lunch, say:

This will make it clear that most of the school is against vaping. 

Next: when someone leaves class to go to the bathroom, ask them, “Hey, are you going to vape?” 

Ask everyone. Even people who are obviously just going to the bathroom. When they get back, say, “Gone a long time there buddy, what did you get up to in there?”

Make it funny. Make it so, so annoying. Get people in all different friend groups to do it. This is funny shaming. You’re not narking on anyone, you’re not picking on anyone, you’re not giving them a chance to talk back, but you’re making it clearly lame to vape. 

If that doesn’t work, negotiate

Ask the people who vape what sucks most about school. What would they be willing to give up vaping in exchange for? 

Push past the non-answers like “there’s too much homework” and “let's make the school day shorter.” You’ll probably hear an answer you agree with.

Now you’re 10x more likely to change whatever their problem is because you have negotiating leverage. The vapers have committed to stopping if the change is made, and admin does not want people vaping. Get it done.

Learn to negotiate with admin and win here.

Time for a Poo Pass

Everyone gets a once-a-day pass that lets them come 5 minutes late to class if they were pooping.

The pass is only valid during passing time, and if you come late to class when there's a test, you don't get extra time.

"But everyone will know I was pooping!"

Who cares bestie EVERYBODY POOPS. Turn it into a meme.

Set it up with one teacher:

Set it up with a strict teacher:

Use the same email template but be ready for them to say no.

Reply by citing research studies that prove the importance of having time to go.

Set it up schoolwide:

Try this with one teacher first. See if it works. Try doing it with all students in your class. A great class to start this in is health because your teacher would totally give you 10 minutes of class time to pitch it.

After it's worked, set it up schoolwide.

Make a copy of this google form and get as many students to fill it out as possible. 20-25 should be enough to start.

Not sure how the pass would work? We'll build an app for your school for free :) reach out to ben@fix.school with details!

Fixing gross bathrooms is gonna take funding 💸💸

Here's how to get a lot of it.

Prove there's a 💁🚽 problem

We’re going to use a strategy adapted from Project CLEAN, an effort to clean up school bathrooms in 21 states and 6 countries. 

Ask students to fill out this form. 25-30 responses should be enough, but the more, the better.

Go through a few bathrooms with a four senses inspection - use this checklist

Build trust 💗 with the principal and the custodians

You NEED their support to get shit done.

First custodian interaction: say “Hey how are ya!” in passing.

Second interaction: Learn their name.

Third interaction:

Email or talk to the principal:

This is really a health issue. And a big one. Bring up these two studies in any and every conversation you have about this.

• This study on high school obstacles to bathroom use

• This study on consequences for the urinary tract

Main conclusion? Bad bathrooms with too few tampons cause long term health problems.

You've got the big evidence, now get evidence for your school.

If you specifically want funding for tampons, replace "hygiene products" with "tampons" in the email. Tampon talk is okay, see? Try pressing this button:

We 💗 bathroom glow ups™

For vandalism to stop, you need to get district support for cleaner bathrooms while making it cooler to create bathroom glow ups™ than ruining them.

When it's a culture problem, not a facilities problem

Sometimes bathrooms don't break because they're old — they break because of what's happening in them. Stall doors get kicked off during horseplay/wrestling, dispensers get punched, mirrors get "tested." No repair budget survives that on its own; you have to change the behavior too.

• Name it without shaming anyone. "Bathrooms keep breaking because people are messing around in there, and now nobody has a working stall" lands better than "stop wrecking the bathroom," which just invites denial.

• Give the behavior somewhere else to go. If it's genuinely horseplay (not vandalism), that's often just excess energy with nowhere to burn off between classes — see 10 minute breaks for a schedule-level fix, or pitch a supervised hangout space near where it's happening most.

• Recruit the people doing it, not just the people annoyed by it. The "adopt a bathroom" and student-led glow-up ideas below work because the same friend groups causing damage often become the ones proud of keeping it nice, once they're the ones who fixed it.

• Loop in whoever supervises that hallway (a coach, a hall monitor, a teacher with a free period) so there's a consistent adult presence at the time of day it happens most — ask your custodian or admin when repair tickets cluster.

The "adopt a bathroom," sports-team, and student-art ideas in the 5-step guide are built for exactly this — jump to Vandalism for the full campaign.

When Nothing Else Works:

• If you have teachers' unions in the top three tiers on this list, get their support first. If your teachers union is currently on strike, ask them to add $10k for repairing school bathrooms to their demands. If they say they can’t add student needs to demands, say “common good” demands have been successful in dozens of school districts and do not go against teacher negotiating rights.
• Is the principal part of the local principal's association? Does he go to those meetings? Ask to make a pitch there.
• Run a protest: line up 50 people on the football field, take your shirts off, face away from the camera and pretend to take a leak. Call a journalist. 
• Post your survey data and checklist results online, ideally in your town/city facebook group.

Speaking up for a good cause can only help your college or job application. Here’s a template for what to say if you get in big trouble and need to explain it in your application.

Get some urinal dividers

Students at Saratoga HS, a public school in California, wrote an op-ed in the school newspaper. They called the article "Urinal dividers: We want more."

They negotiated with administrators. They sent constant emails. The administrators added urinal dividers.

The first thing you should try is asking.

Your school spends around $60 million a year: you can look up the exact amount and learn more about how schools spend money here.

They can afford urinal dividers.

Ask a lot. When teachers ask you how your day is going at the beginning of class, mention the gross bathrooms. Send this email template to administrators (start with the principal, but know that you may need to call in the superintendent). Ask your friends to send the same email. Ask your parents to send it.

Email for you to send:

Email for students and parents to send in bulk:

If admin says eh, here's what you say back:

If admin doesn't think it's important: Collect data. IG poll your followers a simple question: "Do you poop in school?" High numbers are your evidence. Cite studies that show the negative health effects of gross bathrooms.

If admin says they don't have the money: go directly to the source, plumbers.

Email local plumbers asking for them to come fix up the bathroom for free in exchange for...

• Flyers sent home with every student advertising their service.
• Banners advertising them at sports events.

This agreement has to be informal because the school can't approve that type of quid pro quo. Meaning you'll have to get those flyers into everyones' backpacks yourself. It will also help to make friends with your custodians, because at the end of the day they're the only people who have to be involved. Admin has their own bathrooms, they'll honestly never know if someone came in and repaired the student ones. Custodians have seen the bathrooms you have to use and will (hopefully) support you, as long as you're not asking the plumber to tear up the whole floor.

If admin think students are the problem, and that people are always going to graffiti/smoke/start fires in the bathroom, ask them if they've ever seen drug deals happen in the Ralph Lauren store bathrooms.

Wait. Don't use those words.

Express that people don't respect the space right now because the space doesn't respect them. Nice bathrooms will change how students act in them. For evidence, ask them if they've ever been at a school that upgraded or renovated to a new building - did the graffiti and vandalism stop? Their answer will probably be yes - it's definitely what we've heard from teachers!

We’re going to use a 5-step strategy adapted from Project CLEAN, an organization that’s cleaned up school bathrooms in 21 states. 

1. Build trust 💗 with the principal and the custodians

You NEED their support to get shit done.

First custodian interaction: say “Hey how are ya!” in passing.

Second interaction: Learn their name.

Third interaction:

Email or talk to the principal:

2. Get that data, take that inventory.

Make a copy of this google form and get as many students to fill it out as possible. 20-25 should be enough to start.

Go into a few bathrooms and run a four senses inspection - use this checklist. Make sure to get a friend to help you hit guys, girls, and gender neutral bathrooms.

3. Choose a group to talk SOLUTIONS with

Get sports teams to clean up as "team building"

Ask coach(es) if they'd be open to have their athletes clean up a bathroom. Show them the survey data you collected, and explain that "you can't make a tackle with a brick in your tummy."

At the next pep rally, the football team storms in with plungers. They tell poop jokes and encourage people to respect the bathrooms, asking everyone to stand up, then "take one step forward if you've ever not gone to the bathroom because you felt uncomfy there," and so on. They build solidarity. They start cleaning the bathrooms once a month.

This solution is perfect if you think cleaning up is a one-time or monthly problem (people won't come right back in and ruin the bathroom right after you clean it).

Run a schoolwide "adopt a bathroom" campaign

Every club, sports team, or health class gets assigned a bathroom to take care of. You collab with a custodian to clean the place and submit "work orders," or claims to the district about damage, when something breaks.

Custodians will love your help, and you'll need support from them setting up the work order system.

Turn it into a competition (sexiest bathroom, best place to take care of business 2023, nicest smelling bathroom). Put superlatives for this in the yearbook.

If everyone dresses up for spirit week and shows up to football games, this shouldn’t be a problem. But if school is more cliquey or people don’t really care… You’re gonna need social referents, a behavioral psychology secret to change minds and motivate people.

This solution is perfect if you're worried about vandalism continuing even after you clean bathrooms, or if admin isn't willing to invest in bathroom renovations because they think students will keep vandalizing.

By running a student-led bathroom cleaning campaign, vandalizing the bathrooms won't be a fun activity anymore. Vandalism is a "fuck you" to the school, but nobody wants to say "fuck you" to the person sitting next to them in algebra.

Replace graffiti with art - invite students to illustrate the bathrooms

Get permission from your principal (and a "yes" from the custodian) to let students paint over graffiti in the bathrooms. Ask the art teacher for help, too!

You have to make sure it's not going to be "funny" for people to graffiti over the art. You could either:

• illustrate the bathrooms with graffiti - so everyone can contribute without conflict

• talk to people who vandalize and ask them what kind of art they'd want to see - now you're giving them choice and agency while also making sure they won't want to paint over it

Make a powerful ally at the district office

One person is in charge of maintaining your school bathrooms: the central office manager/director of buildings/grounds. The exact name depends on your school, but this person runs every aspect of building operations. A roll of toilet paper gets ordered? They know about it. New ventilation in the gym? They know about it. A stray cat poops on the soccer field? They know about it.

Subject: [your grade: 9th/10th/11th/12th] grader working to improve bathrooms! Hi [District Building Manager Name]

I've surveyed [#] students on our bathroom conditions and [Y]% said they don't go to the bathroom when they have to at school because of bad conditions.

Would you be open to talking about ways space can be made in the school budget to improve this? I'm free after school on [list days/times you're free, eg "Mondays and Wednesdays until 5pm and Fridays 1-3pm"].

Thank you for all you do to maintain [high school name].

With hope and gratitude,
[Your name]

Your principal and your teacher friends will be able to tell you if this is a good person to reach out to, or if there's someone else who might be able to make more of a difference.

Get your mom. And all the other moms.

We can email every parent in your school district explaining why your school's bathrooms are broken and how to fix them.

Reach out to ben@fix.school with your survey data and completed checklist, your school's name, and a list of parent email addresses: we'll take it from there.

4. Put together a plan

If you don't need money for repairs, you're already done. If you do, you'll need to get the decision approved by the district, and sometimes by the school board as well.

You can also call a plumber like in the urinal dividers section, asking them to do it for free in exchange for free advertising. Or... fundraise with this guide.

If you do, put together a restroom improvement plan from this template.

Print it out and put it on your principal's desk! From here, it's out of your hands. You can and should go to the next school board meeting and bring this up (wear a rubber glove on your and bring pictures to make a point), but your principal should take it from here.

5. Wait

Maybe your principal wasn't interested. Or the school board didn't seem excited. It might be time for a nuclear option.

Set up a reporting system that actually alerts custodians

Most schools have no easy way for a student to report "the soap is empty" or "a stall door is broken" the moment they notice it — so it doesn't get reported until someone complains to an adult, days later. A lightweight reporting system fixes that.

The cheap version: a QR code + form

• Make a copy of this google form (the same one used for survey data above), but repurpose it as a live report form: bathroom location, what's wrong (out of supplies / broken fixture / needs cleaning), and how urgent.

• Print a small QR code linking to the form and tape it inside each stall or by the door. Ask your custodian or principal for permission first — this is also a good moment to build the trust described in step 1 of the 5-step guide above.

• Have the form auto-email the head custodian or building manager on every response — Google Forms can do this for free, no app needed.

Want an actual app for this instead of a form? We'll build one for your school for free — reach out to ben@fix.school with details.

Making it stick

• Give custodians a say in how it works. They're the ones who'll act on every report, so ask what would actually make their day easier before you finalize the form (a fixed list of bathroom names? photo upload?).

• Track it publicly (in a low-key way). A simple shared log of "reported → fixed" builds trust that reports actually go somewhere, which is what gets people to keep using it instead of giving up and complaining online instead.

• Fold this into your restroom improvement plan (step 4 of the 5-step guide above) as the ongoing maintenance piece — a one-time cleanup means nothing without a system to catch the next problem early.

🏛️ Talking to your school board

Most bathroom fixes get decided well below the school board — a principal, a building manager, a budget line. The board matters when you need money the school itself doesn't control, or when you want the issue on the public record so it doesn't quietly get dropped. Use this once you've already done steps 1–2 of the 5-step guide above (built trust, collected data) — showing up with numbers is what makes a few minutes of public comment land.

Before the meeting

• Check your district's website for the public comment sign-up process — most require signing up in advance, and many cap comments at 2-3 minutes.

• Bring your survey data and four-senses inspection results (step 2 below) as a one-page handout for board members, not just something you say out loud.

• Tell your principal you're going, and why — a board that hears about a problem from a student and sees the principal already knows about it is far more likely to act.

A public comment script you can copy and adapt

A follow-up letter, if the board doesn't act at the meeting

Attach your restroom improvement plan template (the same one used in step 4 of the 5-step guide above) as the one-pager referenced above.