Philosophical quotations. Beautiful works of poetry. Lists of the hottest guys from the sophomore class.
Welcome to Lower Merion’s girls bathroom stalls. What they lack in locks and toilet paper they make up for in underrated artwork and prose. What was once a simple place for hu¬mans to ‘relieve’ themselves has transformed into a public forum that unites the freshman to the senior, the athlete to the poet, the actress to the Science Olympiad captain.
It has become commonplace for graffiti to be scribbled onto the doors and walls that line the restrooms in our high school. But take a second before you pass disapproving judgment on this vandalism. During a year of construction and destruction, where kids are constantly reminded of what state-of-the-art facilities are to come in the future, kids are just coming up with ways to create beauty in what they have left.
Photo by Madeline Burger
The special aspect of the stall is that every¬one shares it. Contrary to the classrooms, sports teams and clubs where these sort of homog¬enous groupings exist—everyone shares the same stall. This includes every race and ethnic¬ity coming from all kinds of classes. Granted they’re single gendered, but it still remains as the kind of conversation and dialogue you’re really not going to find anywhere else.
Do you not believe me? I implore you to turn to Facebook where “Bathroom Graffiti at LMHS” has become a fanpage, with over 205 fans to date.
“The anonymity of graffiti tells us a lot about what people really think. It has a place in our society and culture. With that comes the risk of getting caught and paying the conse¬quences,” said art teacher Russell Loue.
Then, every few months, we return to the stalls to find everyone’s thoughts, complaints, pictures and dreams painted over in an off-white cheap coat of paint just thick enough to still see the traces of what was left behind. The “hot list”–gone. The infamous tech building debate–erased.
“In general, our custodians check the bathrooms and other areas of the school every morning and afternoon – if they find any graf¬fiti – it is reported – photographed – investigated via the camera system, and then removed. We do not take this type of behavior lightly – when we find a person that is vandalizing our school – we go through the appropriate disciplinary actions and that could involve the police,” said Principal Sean Hughes.
“There’s a lot about the style of graffiti that I like and it has influenced contemporary art quite a bit. But there is still the fact that when done without permission, it is illegal and can really be a costly form of vandalism,” said art teacher Louise Pierce.
Yes, the lavatories at LM still remain as a place for the tremendously bored teenager dying to have a break from their double Chemistry period to find refuge. Yes, it can provide a place for kids to sit before class to finish those Spanish worksheets they forgot to do. But it also appears to be a place for students to exercise their First Amendment right in an anonymous forum, free from ridi¬cule or judgment. And in a place like Lower Merion, where it’s popular to cynically point to our equipment bikes and SAT-prep driven students—it’s nice and comforting to know these types of humanistic conversations still exist.
Rachel Cohen
Class of 2010
