With acts of vandalism plaguing the facilities of Manchester, students have begun to wonder if this state of affairs is the new normal. In the beginning, some students viewed the vandalism as vaguely funny or at least tolerable. However, the scale of vandalism rapidly became a major inconvenience, especially for the men’s restrooms. Students were inundated with a mix of rumors last September surrounding the most destructive of these incidents, a bathroom fire, and the Manchester Scroll set out to get the facts straight. At the height of the incidents, our Editor-in-chief, Caleb Summers, and interviewed employees to get a clearer understanding of what’s been going on with this rash of property destruction.

Summers: Thank you so much for meeting with me. First of all, what happened? We would like an official recounting of the situation so that we’re presenting accurate information. What was the full situation?

Mrs. Ellis: During B lunch, a student brought fuel and a lighter from home and lit it on fire in the bathroom. No one was hurt, but some burn damage was inflicted on the bathroom. The student was quickly apprehended. 

Summers: What is the extent of the damage?

Mrs. Ellis: The fire created a large burn mark on the floor and wall, damaging the paint enough that it has to be repainted.

Summers: What sort of consequences should students expect if this were to happen again? What charges will be filed against this student?

Mrs. Ellis: Felony Arson. This student did not get a slap on the wrist. They will have to work with the fire marshal and the police department to resolve this, and answer for this in court. As far as school punishment, this student and any future student would receive at minimum a substantial suspension, as well as possibly a recommendation for expulsion. Expulsion means no school anywhere in Chesterfield county for, at minimum, a calendar year. I would like to make it clear that this was not just a violation of school rules; this is a felony that the student will answer for in court.

Summers: How does this relate to the reports of growing vandalism in and around the school building?

Mrs. Ellis: We (faculty) thought we had a handle on it for a few days, but just today someone wrecked the yellow men’s restroom by the office! They tore out all the dividers, smashed the soap dispensers… It’s very disappointing. It’s been a long time, but when I was a high schooler, some students smoked cigarettes in the bathrooms. Kids would put cigarettes out on toilets, leave burn marks on the sinks… it was a big issue. In response to this, the principal chained up all the bathrooms, and there was only one bathroom to go to in the whole building. It was humiliating, you had to travel all the way to the opposite end of the school and sign in on a sheet, and there were monitors to make sure you didn’t smoke… we don’t want that here! We don’t want to do that to our students. We don’t have the capacity to deal with all this vandalism right now. For example, with students stealing the soap and smashing the dispensers, we have enough money to replace them- for now- but we don’t have the supplies available. There’s a global recession, a worker shortage, some of this stuff is taking much longer to get here. We need that soap in those bathrooms now more than ever to combat the spread of COVID. This vandalism hurts every student in this school. We want students to have a safe and convenient experience using our restrooms, but we can’t manage that with this degree of vandalism. I know that personally, this is taking away from my ability to perform all the different functions of my job. I want to be able to stick my head into classrooms sometimes, sit in on lessons, make sure that our students’ education is the best that it can be. I can’t do things like that right now because of the sheer volume of vandalism complaints our whole administration has had to deal with. We know that most of our students – almost all of you- are really great kids, well behaved, just a joy to work with. We don’t want you to answer for the behavior of a few students. We want to be able to treat you like the young adults that you are.

Summers: How will the school respond to this? How will this affect school policy going forward?

Mrs. Ellis: We’ve already increased bathroom surveillance by quite a bit. 

Summers: Thank you for your time.

With considerable damage being done to facilities, constant school maintenance has been essential. We spoke with Brian Stewart, Manchester’s head of Maintenance.

Summers: Were you there for the incident?

Mr. Stewart: You know, we cleaned it up! We cleaned off the trash and the temporary stuff.

Summers: What happened? I mean, what was the extent of the damage?

Mr. Stewart: Well, the only serious damage outside of cleaning it up was the paint. The heat literally blistered the paint off the walls and floor, and, y’know, sometime in the spring I’m gonna have to repaint that.

Summers: How does this relate to a trend of growing vandalism?

Mr. Stewart: I mean, there’s always been stuff like this that happens. Usually we don’t get stuff like this until SOL’s- SOL’s make you kids crazy! This is unusual, though. We’ve had a lot of vandalism, this early in the school year… This is several times worse than it usually is. We can’t get soap dispensers installed as fast as they’re getting ripped off the wall. I mean, I don’t know- maybe it’s COVID, maybe it’s just that time of year. This is, I would say, yes, an unusual occurrence, however. 

Summers:  Is there anything you’d like to say to the student body about this?

Mr. Stewart: Every time this happens, that’s time away from, like, fixing the lights and stuff. I mean, we work hard. We work really hard to make sure you can go to the bathroom and stuff works! We work hard so you can go to the bathroom and feel safe. Just don’t do this. I know this isn’t all of you, it isn’t even most of you, it’s a select few. It’s a job, y’know, and we try not to make it personal. We just work really hard, and this wastes our time.