Since my first day at San Marcos, I have taken note of our school’s preference for automatic hand dryers, given that only one of our bathrooms has a paper towel dispenser. Now don’t get me wrong—I appreciate an effective hand dryer that thoroughly blasts all the moisture off your hands. However, the keyword is “effective,” and San Marcos hand dryers are not. When a “dryer” manages only to blow hot breath on your hands, a couple of problems arise.

First, the bathroom passes, shared between a myriad of students, become uncomfortably moist. It’s unfortunate enough that I must share bacteria-ridden passes with my peers, but adding the fact that they’re often wet is truly upsetting. Second, you’re destined to resort to the clothes you’re wearing to completely dry off your hands, leading to the beautiful outfit you meticulously put together, not only to dampen, but change color and/or pattern—total mood killer! Third, it has come to my attention that staff bathrooms are outfitted with paper towel dispensers, so this makes me wonder if paper towels are simply a commodity only for teachers. According to an SMHS teacher, “I frequent the auditorium staff bathroom, and I’ve always wondered why there are paper towels and a hand dryer. I will always pick the paper towels—the hand dryer barely works; it just kind of gently blows air.” Even teachers acknowledge our subpar hand dryers.  Fourth, it’s confusing that only one of the student restrooms has access to paper towels. Why? Shouldn’t we stick to one method, or even better, stick to what actually dries your hands? 

In a school-wide survey where students were asked to give their opinions on this dilemma, 34.6% stated that SMHS hand dryers were ineffective, 36.5% stated they were highly ineffective, and 21.2% stated that the hand dryers were average. This means that roughly 70% of respondents are unsatisfied with our bathroom dryers, and coupled with the fact that 89% of respondents prefer paper towels over air drying, means that our school has some serious changes to make. Even though paper towels are the more sanitary method of hand drying, San Marcos had the right mindset, going with hand dryers over towels. Dryers are more cost-effective, especially in the long run, since they require no refilling and operate solely on electricity, and they reduce paper waste that would normally come from bathroom towel usage. I propose that San Marcos should stick to paper towels or swap our current hand dryers for more modern and capable ones in order to avoid wet bathroom passes, ruined outfits, confusion, and worst of all, students entirely skipping hand washing due to a hassling process. Dry hands shouldn’t be this difficult.