Recent changes in the restroom policies have students upset. Administration has set limits for restroom use during passing periods and even class time. During the holiday school break the school district came to a conclusion that we needed stronger and stricter restroom policies that they think students will cooperate with. They have arbitrarily closed down the use of restrooms around the school and only have two restrooms open at times which has many upset.
This is not a good idea and the policy needs to be reevaluated.
I’ve tried using the restroom during class time, and it’s impossible to find restrooms close by. As a senior we have our classes on the 3rd floor, so there’s no reason why we should have to walk around the school to find an open restroom. It takes a lot of valuable class time to walk across the other side of the school to use the restroom.
The school principal, Eric King, sent out an email to all the students in the school that stated that the school restroom use will be limited to five students at a time. A staff member will be stationed in and around designated restrooms to monitor traffic and ensure expectations are followed. That should be normalized. There should be staff members monitoring restrooms at all times. The amount of restrooms that are open should not be limited to students. A properly monitored restroom would make sure the students who are causing problems are punished.
He also stated that staff members will continue to monitor hallways as stairwells during instructional time to limit disruption and support student safety, and to further strengthen supervision, all restrooms will be closed except for two located on the second floor of the main building. This email stated the “This will allow us to better monitor restroom use and reduce unmonitored traffic.”
The reasons behind the change are understandable. The school has to be safe and the restrooms cannot be constantly abused and vandalized. The problems is limiting restroom use without punishing the students who are causing the problems really solves nothing. The policy closing restrooms needs to be reevaluated and revised for the benefit of all students.
