GOSHEN COUNTY – As the second semester of school within Goshen County School District No. 1 gets moving and while teachers and students get back into the swing of their everyday routines, a concerning matter regarding respect and integrity has allegedly come to fruition.

The particular issue concerns an ongoing problem of vandalism, damages, or even defacement of certain property within the confines of Torrington High School (THS).

THS Principal, Dr. Cynthia Porter, spoke with feelings of slight apprehension on behalf of the entire faculty and staff in regard to the ongoing school problem.

According to Dr. Porter the problem has become what seems to be a earnest lack of consideration, or even appreciation for custodial and maintenance staff while putting an inequitable burden on their everyday responsibilities.

“It’s always been happening,” Porter began. “I want to make that clear. Vandalism in high schools happens across the country, and its not unique to this town or community. My concern and worry is that if we don’t stay on top of it and ahead of it, we could end up with unfortunate situations.

“It puts more backlog work on our custodians and maintenance staff, and they already have a full schedule of work. This just adds more to it, and they don’t get to other cleaning and maintenance that is on their regular schedule because they are taking care of these other problems. Right now kids are apparently taking paper towels, getting them wet and throw them on the bathroom ceilings, and on the walls. Sometimes we find milk cartons clogging the toilets, and soap dispensers have been ripped off.”

Dr. Porter touched base on other ongoing incidents such as etching obscene language and images on bathroom doors, and moreover illegally smoking vapes and marijuana on school property. Also, THS students had evidently turned on an empty cafeteria microwave for twenty minutes until the revolving plate broke, forcing the school to aversely have them replaced.

The THS Principal made it a valid point to bring up past experiences with familiar issues in Rock Springs, where she served prior within the school district of Sweetwater County.

When it comes to vandalism, things tend to escalate and get progressively worse if things are not addressed swiftly and appropriately. 

“At the high school in Rock Springs, bathroom stall doors would get ripped off the hinges because kids would swing and hang on them. It could take weeks to replace that. Meanwhile you come to the gym thinking you can use the bathroom, but the doors are on backorder for three weeks. This is something we definitely don’t want to have happening here,” Dr. Porter said. 

As part of simple assistance from the community, Dr. Porter along with the rest of THS staff have unpretentiously requested that parents and families merely talk to their children about potential long term consequences that comes with vandalizing school, and public property. She was also adamantly remindful that using tobacco or marijuana in school was not only wrong and disrespectful, but prohibited by Wyoming law. 

“We know it’s just a few kids, not all of them” Dr. Porter stated. “But all it takes is just a few to create a bigger problem. If you see something, please say something. We take such pride in the presentation of our school and community. We need everyone working together to help.”