Rebuilding Baño

It’s five minutes before second hour ends on Friday and everybody knows where to go: the fourth floor bathroom. Backpacks pile up outside, the boys pile in, the mirrors fog up and Darude’s “Sandstorm” starts blaring. The entire bathroom becomes engulfed in the “baño” chants for thirty seconds, then disaster strikes. The urinal came crashing down, and with it the existence of the club came with it.

I firmly believe that Baño shouldn’t be banned based on one accident, but should be brought back for the benefits it has for the student body. Club Baño has been banned long enough: it deserves to be reinstated.

Club Baño gives guys a place to go to express their passion towards East sports. it also builds bonds and gets people talking to each other. After all, eighty plus boys are packed into a bathroom meant for eight boys at most, so you better be good at small talk. The club has been a staple of East boys for the past few years and one incident shouldn’t wipe away all of the history and spirit that the club has brought to East.

It isn’t hard to see that school spirit has been lacking this year. We have seen freshman who don’t represent East well, spotty attendance to the football games and a lack of enthusiasm about East in general. The return of Club Baño would be the first step to ratcheting up the spirit in the halls of East. After all, Club Baño brings the boys together, and now that Baño is banned it puts a damper on the mood around school.

Yes, I understand that breaking a urinal into shards of porcelain causes a problem for the school. However, the student responsible paid for it with both a suspension and a fine. The point of Club Baño is not to be destructive, it is to get together a group of penned-up boys and get pumped up about a game that night. The shattered urinal altered the public’s view on the club. Obviously we didn’t go into the bathroom that day saying to each other, ‘Wow it would be funny if we broke a urinal.’ No, we just want to have the highlight of our day in close proximity with 80 of our closest friends.

Club Baño is meant to reduce stress in school and for people to get excited about East’s sports. If the ban on Club Baño was lifted, La Toilette, the girls version of Club Baño, would return with it. This would bring back the excitement for everybody at school and let’s face it, Shawnee Mission East could really benefit from some fun and games. And trust me, these clubs would provide that.

I would hate to see one of our school’s best traditions crumble into oblivion like that urinal. Students many years down the road deserve to live the experience just as we did. Bad things happen to good people and this principle applies to Club Baño. As Vince Lombardi put it, ‘It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.’ The fact that Club Baño wasn’t given a fair shot to redeem itself after one incident is unjust. On behalf of all the boys at East, bring back Club Baño.