Students and staff at Bakersfield College are fed up with bathroom graffiti and want nothing to do with it while some find it entertaining.
Dave Howlett, a sophomore majoring in criminal justice, said, “It makes me sick, and I detest almost anything that has to do with it, unless the art is worth appreciating.
Most of the graffiti seen around campus is nothing more than mixed up letters and numbers blurred together.”
Unlike Howlett, when asked about graffiti, Luisa Hurtado said, “I really don’t see much around campus,” but according to Karla Barajas, a freshmen, the bathrooms down at the Language Arts building are constantly vandalized with women trying to ruin others’ reputations and solicitations for sexual favors.
“It makes me feel very uncomfortable.”
Other students, such as Jonathan Walker, a sophomore majoring in history, find it entertaining.
“When I walk into a bathroom and see a swastika on the wall, I could take offense because I’m Jewish, but it’s hard to get offended by ignorant people,” said Walker.
“I think it’s funny to see how people advertise their ignorance.”
Many students feel that graffiti has no place on a campus setting.
Deante Rodriguez, a sophomore majoring in business management responds, “Pencils should be used in the classroom and not in a bathroom.
“It doesn’t affect me, but it could start drama that doesn’t need to be on campus,” Rodriguez said.
BC maintenance painter Mitchell Barter said that bathroom graffiti cleanup is an ongoing process.
Barter explained that “one week I can remove graffiti from the same bathroom three times in one day and the next week there’s none at all, it just depends.”
Barter also said some of the worst graffiti is up by the public transit station and is done by non-BC students.
When asked how grueling the job can be, Barter replied, “It depends on if they use ink or felt. Ink comes off, but felt stays forever.”
BC carpenter Jimmy “Smitty” Smith recalls a time when they had sting operations where they would freshly paint a bathroom and check after every student.
“It’s disheartening to know that someone would willingly deface public property used to help people better themselves,” he said.