Students Lacking Water Bottle Refill Stations on Campus
By Sydney Teves
By Sydney Teves
Water fountains are an essential part of every school. They are helpful for when people forget or don’t have water bottles, or even when they just want a quick sip of water during the day.
There are nine water fountains on campus, two of which are in the locker rooms, and six of those are accessible to students throughout the day plus the two in the locker rooms if the rooms are open. Only one out of those nine fountains is completely inaccessible to students throughout the day because it’s on the pool deck. This doesn’t seem like that big of an issue if it was a simple water fountain like the rest, however, it becomes a problem when it is the only fountain with a bottle filler.
Many students bring reusable bottles or disposable ones with the intention of refilling them once empty. But this seemingly simple task has posed a challenge for them as all fountains accessible on campus are designed for drinking directly out of, not for filling a bottle. Kavya Shankar, 11, finds this to be the case for her.
“I bring a water bottle to school but I can’t fill it during the day because I don’t trust the water fountains and I can’t go on the pool deck to get to the fountain there,” said Shankar.
The fountain on the pool deck can be useful for swimmers. However, some of those athletes have noted that it’s not a great addition, as not many of them use the drinking portion of it, let alone the bottle filling part during practice. Leah Bharucha, 11, is an athlete on the girls swim team who also brings a water bottle to school. When she finishes her water bottle during the day, she just waits until she gets home to drink more water because of the inconvenience of filling it at school.
“Filling my water bottle in one of the regular water fountains that are placed all over the school is greatly unsanitary and very difficult to do,” said Bharucha.
Some students like Jackson Walker, 9, haven’t found any issues with not having a bottle filling fountain.
“It’s not too hard to fill up my water with the normal fountain. I bring two water bottles anyways,” said Walker.
Another swimmer, Eden Shlimenzon, 9, thinks the fountain on the pool deck is helpful, except students during the day can’t use it, and swimmers at practice don’t use it. She ends up going out of her way to get water because there are no other ways to fill her bottle.
“I have to buy water bottles at the student store when I run out of water because it’s really hard to fill it up in the fountains,” said Shlimenzon.
There are nine water fountains on campus, two of which are in the locker rooms, and six of those are accessible to students throughout the day plus the two in the locker rooms if the rooms are open. Only one out of those nine fountains is completely inaccessible to students throughout the day because it’s on the pool deck. This doesn’t seem like that big of an issue if it was a simple water fountain like the rest, however, it becomes a problem when it is the only fountain with a bottle filler.
Many students bring reusable bottles or disposable ones with the intention of refilling them once empty. But this seemingly simple task has posed a challenge for them as all fountains accessible on campus are designed for drinking directly out of, not for filling a bottle. Kavya Shankar, 11, finds this to be the case for her.
“I bring a water bottle to school but I can’t fill it during the day because I don’t trust the water fountains and I can’t go on the pool deck to get to the fountain there,” said Shankar.
The fountain on the pool deck can be useful for swimmers. However, some of those athletes have noted that it’s not a great addition, as not many of them use the drinking portion of it, let alone the bottle filling part during practice. Leah Bharucha, 11, is an athlete on the girls swim team who also brings a water bottle to school. When she finishes her water bottle during the day, she just waits until she gets home to drink more water because of the inconvenience of filling it at school.
“Filling my water bottle in one of the regular water fountains that are placed all over the school is greatly unsanitary and very difficult to do,” said Bharucha.
Some students like Jackson Walker, 9, haven’t found any issues with not having a bottle filling fountain.
“It’s not too hard to fill up my water with the normal fountain. I bring two water bottles anyways,” said Walker.
Another swimmer, Eden Shlimenzon, 9, thinks the fountain on the pool deck is helpful, except students during the day can’t use it, and swimmers at practice don’t use it. She ends up going out of her way to get water because there are no other ways to fill her bottle.
“I have to buy water bottles at the student store when I run out of water because it’s really hard to fill it up in the fountains,” said Shlimenzon.