Incidents of vandalism have occurred in boys bathrooms at Niles West leaving the ceilings damaged and debris and parts of the ceiling tile on the ground. Students attended two double assemblies after winter break to hear the precautions that are being taken. Principal Jeremy Christian displayed pictures of the damage at the assemblies and warned students of the possible consequences that would occur if these actions continued.

“If we need to shut down the restrooms and have the students go one at a time, then that is something we will have to do if the vandalism continues. That is extreme, and I don’t want to do that, but we want to protect the safety of our students, “Christian said.

Assistant Principal of Student Services, Antwan Babakhani, spoke at the assembly on Tues. Jan. 9, letting the students know the consequences of vandalism on school property.

“Whenever property is destroyed or graffiti is somewhere on the walls, the first thing we do is isolate the situation. We review cameras to see who is coming in and out of the bathrooms and identify who it is. We do all kinds of interviews and conversations based on those identifications,” Babakhani said. 

Assistant Principal of Operations Steve Parnther has been working with the Niles West security team and administrators on further investigations.

“We are partnering with our security team to ensure additional bathroom checks. The bathrooms that experienced vandalism have been closed for the time being, which inconveniences the rest of the school community. I’m very disappointed that our students would engage in this behavior; this is our house so it is important to respect our school community,” Parnther said.

West bathrooms will be under close supervision, with multiple bathroom checks from security guards and other safety measures to attempt to prevent future incidents.

“We will be adding vape detectors to the bathrooms to see if we can catch students and hold them accountable, which is another layer of security that we will be taking to make sure our school is safe. I was disgusted and upset because this does not represent who we are. This is something we need to correct as a student body,” Christian said.

Students were told the consequences of disrespecting school property could be tickets or possible arrests. Babakhani acknowledged that there could be a deeper meaning to why this is happening, but if the vandalism doesn’t stop, other measures will need to be taken.

“I believe that the deeper cause is something more going on in someone’s life; to prevent this, we are taking better safety measures, better observation, and better security, but we also need to understand our students,” Babakhani said.