With toilets sloshing water around, DHS girls quickly bustle in and out of the stalls, waiting to use one of the three sinks. They place their hands under the air dryer for all of two seconds, give up, scoop up their books, and then run out to class, flicking water droplets everywhere.

Girls look quickly at the etchings and pen marks spelling out crude and degrading comments on the bathroom walls, and make sure that they don’t see their own name anywhere.

Classic writing on bathroom walls started with “for a good time call…” messages. They have since expanded into confessions of love and ways to knock others down in the ladies’ room.

In a recent inspection, the DHS men’s bathrooms were free of phone numbers and girls’ names. In fact, the only writing found was a picture on the hand dryer, implying that when you push the button on the hand dryer you will “receive bacon” (an attempt at humor regarding the various ways to interpret the symbols for heat waves on the instructions?).

Unfortunately, the girls have been harder at work with their pens, markers, and even green paint. Messages are the décor for DHS females while using the rest rooms. With arrows pointing to specific names, words like “slut,” “whore” (although often spelled wrong), and “hoe” (also has spelling issues) are all etched into toilet seats, displayed on walls or toilet paper dispensers.

Seeing a definite distinction between the girls’ and boys’ bathrooms, leads one to believe that Dartmouth girls are just catty to one another. “All I hear is girls talking smack about one another behind their backs,” senior Griffin Hanrahan said. “There are really more fights with girls than there are with guys.”

“I think girls are just very competitive in sports and just in general with one another, and take it out in a catty way. But that’s my opinion,” said senior cheerleading captain Kristen Dube.

Pop culture leads young teen girls to believe that the fiercest girls are the most attractive girls. Movies like “Mean Girls” seem to pinpoint the “hottest girls” at school as hateful and spiteful. “Catty girls are not at all attractive,” senior soccer captain Morgan Brandso said. “Not. At. All.”

The janitors do attempt to wash off the vulgar comments and swears in the bathrooms, although the use of Sharpies and paint often slows down this process.

There doesn’t seem to be a real reason why people leave anonymous love notes to the opposite sex and call one another names on bathroom walls. “Slut” definitely takes the cake at DHS, appearing the most times on the bathroom walls. “If they’re [girls] mad at you about something for some weird reason that’s usually the first word they go for,” said senior Nicole Mendonca.

What it all waters down to is the motive behind stall-wall graffiti. “The anonymity [causes girls to write on bathroom walls] because a lot of teenage female culture revolves around social status,” senior Ben Che said, “and you can't obtain a high one if you're seen as unnecessarily mean and spiteful. Therefore, especially since most girls' handwritings look exactly the same, you use the bathroom wall where people can see your thoughts but not know who you are.”

So, DHS girls, follow the golden rule and be nice to one another.