The thought of sitting on a public toilet grosses out many, and at SJHHS, students have no alternative: the student bathrooms don’t have any toilet seat covers. However, there is a reason for this.

According to Ryan Burris, Chief Communications Officer for CUSD, the school does not provide seat covers in most of the bathrooms because of plumbing issues that can be caused by a bunch of them being flushed. But even with this logical explanation, students are still concerned.

“When I have to go to the bathroom really bad, I want to be able to sit down, and I don’t want to sit down on the regular toilet seat because that’s gross.” says student Alexa Lopez.

But, according to Medical Daily, using toilet paper to cover a toilet, or using a seat cover, is pretty useless, and you are far more likely to get an infection from not washing your hands and touching your face.

Also, according to ABC News, your phone is the home to tens of thousands of germs and is way dirtier than a toilet seat.

Think about it this way: toilets are designed the way they are for a reason. The smooth and circular surface is harder for bacteria and germs to cling on to. Every time you flush a toilet, the germs get sprayed onto the toilet paper; if you just sit on that paper, you’re sitting right on top of the germs you were trying to avoid.

But even if using a toilet seat cover has been proven to not make a difference, there are situations where a cover could come in handy.

“Sometimes there is pee on the toilet seat and it’s disgusting, and I have to wipe it off with toilet paper. I’d rather have a seat cover so I don’t have to deal with cleaning that.” says SJHHS student Lauren Precioso.

To the students who are still worried about their sanitation, some things you can do to avoid germs in the bathroom are to wash your hands with soap and water and to use paper towels when drying off, if possible.