Ever since the ‘Licktok’ trend that began back in September 2021, bathroom vandalisms at Neshaminy have only become more severe.

The most bizarre vandalisms have been carried out mainly in the boy’s bathroom, from knee walkers being jammed in the urinals to toilets being completely removed.

An Instagram account has been created due to the frequency of these vandalisms, aiming to document the trend.

“I personally don’t believe that this account specifically has influenced any vandalism,” the anonymous account owner stated.“Half of the posts on here are submissions of vandalism from a long time ago, but some posts I have taken personally to post on here, such as the toilet ripped out of the ground, [which is] about the worst I’ve seen.”

Although the owner of the account does not believe that their content has warranted any influence, they do believe that social media outside of their page has had a large impact on the vandalism.

“It seems like the whole bathroom vandalism stuff started around September 2021 during the devious lick trend,” the Instagram owner said.

To combat this, Neshaminy High School has shut down both D-hall boys and girls bathrooms, as well as the F-hall boys bathroom. G-hall bathrooms remain open and are the only available bathrooms for people who utilize the boy’s bathroom.

On top of this, hall aides have been placed at the entrance to the boy’s bathroom to regulate and monitor the students usage.

Many students currently struggle with getting to the bathroom due to the limitations of availble bathrooms.
“Before all this stuff happened, I would get from the classroom to the bathroom and back in three minutes, but now it takes up to ten minutes because the lines are so long,” an anonymous student stated.

Students are now required to produce a pass to enter the bathroom, and if there are discrepancies about the validity of the pass, the student is sent back to their class which makes the wait even longer, disrupting their attendance and class participation.

Photo courtesy of Brianna Vera

Neshaminy staff is being stretched thin, as the new monitoring takes away time from security and hall aides to do their intended jobs. This has resulted in all bathrooms being shut down during the end of eighth period, when hall staff are moved outside to begin their bus patrol duty.

Though bathroom policies remain strict, many students are speculating as to how the situation could be resolved.

“I think that it is a great idea to get the hall monitors to check the bathrooms after the students leave so it’s easier to track and crack down on those immature students who like to vandalize the bathrooms. Although, I certainly do not think it’s a good idea to shut down the bathrooms, because then everyone who wants to use the bathroom has to wait in long lines and suffer the consequences of the bathroom vandalism that they didn’t even do themselves,” the Instagram account owner said.

The real question is — what’s next?

Administration has attempted to ease some of the troubles that have come with shutting down bathrooms, opening certain bathrooms during different times of the day.

Many Neshaminy students are unsure of where this bathroom situation is heading, and whether or not the student vandals will change their destructive behavior.

One anonymous Neshaminy junior believes that Neshaminy students should be responsible for their own actions.
“Just be responsible and stop doing stuff like this that can get you in serious trouble. We’re in high school, and we all have futures we should take care of.”