MAHANOY CITY - The issue of no toilet paper in a boys' bathroom at Mahanoy Area High School has spread like wildfire around the country in print, broadcast and Internet media outlets, but high school Principal Thomas Smith said the headlines don't tell the whole story.
During last Thursday's meeting of the Mahanoy Area school board, Mahanoy City parent Karen Yedsena addressed the school board during the public portion about "why the boys are not allowed to have toilet paper except if they go to the nurse or the office to get it."
Speaking to the school board, Thomas spoke of vandalism in the boys' bathrooms with toilet paper rolls being jammed into the toilets, along with major damage of about $2,000 to one bathroom in the gymnasium, a case that is pending with the police.
Yedsena's complaint centered on how her son and some other male students are uncomfortable going to the office to ask for the toilet paper.
On Tuesday, Smith and Superintendent Joie Green spoke with The Republican-Herald about the controversy. Thomas offered during the board meeting to speak with Yedsena about the matter the next day.
"I told the parent to call the school on Friday and we'd talk about it. There was no call on Friday," Smith said. "We thought it was just a single issue with one parent and one student. We're still waiting for the call. When your story ran, and when I read the whole entire story, I thought it was a positive story. I'm willing to talk to anybody at anytime. No one has reported anything positive or negative about it."
Yedsena could not be reached for comment by telephone.
After the story was published in The Republican-Herald, a shortened version of the story was distributed by The Associated Press and was picked up by media outlets around the country.
"We were getting email after email after email when the story hit," Smith said. "When it hit, it was only bits and pieces of your story. What I told people they (other news outlets) just ran with it and made their own story out of it. We've seen stories that said we were refusing kids to go to bathroom, or the school is making kids buy toilet paper. Realistically, I told everybody yesterday and today was that it was one bathroom and we have six bathrooms. One bathroom is the issue. We don't refuse anybody from going into the bathroom ever. I've been a student, teacher and principal here and have never refused anyone from going to the bathroom."
"All the other bathrooms have toilet paper in them, so students have the option of not using that one bathroom if they don't want to," Green said.
"We don't have anything in policy that a student has to use that bathroom," Smith said. "That student who was upset had three other bathrooms that could have used, three other bathrooms."
Green said a review of the nursing records showed that 14 students were sent home this school year for a variety of illnesses, and Yedsena's son went home one time in November, stating that Yedsena's remarks of her son having to go home multiple times were untrue.
"He went home from the nurse one day. I have the records," Green said. "And that happened in November. If this was such an issue, why was it brought up on Thursday rather than in November?"
"And what we've been saying for the longest time is that there is a chain of command," Smith said. "If this is an issue, she should have come in or called me and we could have set up a meeting. I do that on a consistent, regular basis. What I did was a strategy to curb the vandalism. I could have done other things. If the students would have had a major issue, I would have considered other options that I would have. Locking that bathroom completely could have been an option and the forcing everybody to use the other bathrooms here."
"One other thing that needs to be stressed that social media websites are stating what's wrong with this administration that it can't find this person and why punish everybody for one or two people," Green said. "Mr. Smith didn't make this decision irrationally. He spoke with the presidents of the classes. He informed the student body that it was happening and that someone needs to come forward. Nobody is going to 'rat' on another student in the high school. The students knew it was going to happen. It was happening at the end of last year (with the toilet paper). He put the toilet paper back in that room at the beginning of this year and it happened again and we took the toilet paper back out. At no point did anyone come and say anything to us. The students knew all along it was happening."
Green pointed out that anyone who needs to use the bathroom, which is located at the end a hallway that has no classrooms and is near the offices of the superintendent, business manager and high school principal, can sign out the toilet paper that is needed. The student is not given a roll, but sheets that can be put inside a pocket. Afterward, the student returns to sign that he is going back to class.
Smith has been receiving positive suggestions from other school districts that have similar problems. One suggestion was having a teacher at a desk near the bathroom, but Smith said he needs all of the teachers in the classrooms teaching and can't spare them.
"This whole thing should never have blown up into what it was," Green said. "It's a shame that one person for whatever reason caused such turmoil and embarrassment to a school district when this whole thing could have been resolved if she would have just come to the administration with her concern."
"In the next couple of days I'll talk to my students and get a feel of where we're at," Smith said. "Maybe they'll give me the direction of that we think you can put the toilet paper back in."
"I was walking down the hallway and students were coming up to me and saying, 'Mrs. Green, don't put that toilet paper back in there. Tell that to Mr. Smith,' " Green said. "They were saying, 'You can't give into this.' That told me that they knew what was going on here."