If you have passed the C wing boy’s bathroom at Central the past few weeks, you may have noticed the sign on the door “Closed Due To Vandalism.” There has seemed to be an increase in the closure of the bathrooms this school year due to these circumstances happening, whether it be a technical malfunction or vandalism. WMC’s Head of Security Officer Al Boroughs has a inside perspective on this issue

Recently, a sink in the C wing boy’s bathroom was dislodged from the wall. However, no one was held accountable for this because the school cannot confirm that this was an act of vandalism. Officer Boroughs stated,“If we could definitely prove a particular student or person created an act of vandalism, then we would have things in place to do…either a suspension or even it could be a police matter.”

Although it seems that these occurrences have increased, there is no evidence to support this. However, this may be due to lack of accountability on the student’s part. “We definitely encourage students to come tell us about it, we say, ‘if there’s anything you know, you need to tell me’…because it impacts everyone,” Officer Boroughs added. He also said that if vandalism was raised to the HIB level (harassment, intimidation, bullying) WMC will take it very seriously and will do everything they can to figure out the culprit.

Vandalism impacts the students and teachers at Central as well. Boys in the C wing now have to relocate to another bathroom and teachers have to spend more time monitoring bathrooms. In addition to students and teachers, he adds that he is impacted as well. “It impacts me because I have to look at footage to see if I can see anything…everyone has a role, we all have to take part in the investigation.” This time that he takes to sort this out also takes away time from him accounting for possibly more important security issues at Central and Mendham. “Normally the hall duty teachers move around, check the doors, and usher kids back in the classrooms. So now we’re keeping them stationary near the problem bathrooms, where we deem to be the most recognizable bathrooms where we’ve seen incidents of vandalism,” Officer Boroughs said. He adds this has helped to limit the incidents in the problem areas of the school, especially during lunch.

Consequences of being caught in the act of vandalism may include suspension. “The administrative team will suspend you if you’re found that you were directly responsible, even indirectly, like if you were the lookout or gave someone the marker to write something offensive on the wall or something,” Burroughs stated said, and also added that even if you are indirectly related, there’s going to be consequences.

After the school finds out, parents are notified, and if there’s funds needed to fix what was broken, parents may be responsible for that as well. “It could be a financial burden on the students’ parents, the student could be suspended, and let’s say if a student plays a sport, there also could be a consequence if they’re in season that they could sit the bench for a day or several days,” Officer Boroughs warned.

“If you see something, say something, it sounds like a cliché, but the last incident that happened, it was reported to me within a minute,” Officer Boroughs said. He insisted students to tell a teacher, administrator, or even not to hesitate to head on down to his office. “Everything’s confidential.” he added, and explained that it’s a group effort, too. “This is your school, right? We try to do the best we can to keep you safe and to educate you, make this a safe environment for you. So, try to keep the bathrooms clean, try to keep them safe, but then someone does something. to vandalize and it’s not good for anyone.”