Washing your hands is a basic task performed after using the bathroom. That simple task has gotten a little more complicated at Southfield High.

The upper B House girls’ bathroom was without soap last June and was in the same condition when school started this September. It had a broken soap dispenser before being repaired two weeks into the new school year.

In the meantime, girls had to seek out other distant bathrooms with soap. Or girls could settle for finding and using hand sanitizer provided by a generous teacher. But the worst option was not even washing your hands.

Surely a custodian responsible for cleaning the bathrooms noticed the problem last June and could have resolved the issue four months ago.

Interim Assistant Principal Sonia Jackson said the dispenser was fixed once but she was unaware it broke again until female students brought it to her attention. She explained, “Last year a lot of jobs were getting switched around, and there was a plethora of (maintenance and repair) requests put in for many things.” Once she learned about it, she quickly had the broken soap dispenser replaced, but custodians should have reported it last year.

Not having soap in any bathroom is gross and needs immediate attention. It’s a health issue. Just 30 seconds of simple hand washing with soap and water reduces the bacterial count and helps keep everyone healthy.

Students can do their part to help by not leaving hair in the sinks and putting tissue and hand towels in their proper place.