A new bathroom policy has been implemented after several complaints about students possibly using the bathrooms for prohibited activities such as cell phone use or vaping. Due to these complaints, only five students are allowed in the restrooms at a time with a monitor standing at the door during passing periods.
This policy, while positive, needs alterations.
A significant issue with this policy is the number of stalls in a bathroom compared to the number of people that are allowed in. The women’s bathroom upstairs has eight stalls and downstairs has six. The upstairs men’s restrooms has five stalls and three urinals while downstairs has four stalls and three urinals. This presents inconsistencies. While the majority of stalls or urinals can be used up downstairs, the upstairs restrooms are more restricted.
Students and teachers are having trouble getting to class on time because of this policy as students often have to wait in line for the restroom and some might even have to wait to go until class has already started. Either way this policy causes tardies. As for the teachers, this takes away time from them to be able to prepare for their upcoming classes or monitor students going into their classrooms because they are monitoring the restrooms during passing periods.
Lastly, this policy is an invasion of privacy to an extent. In the upstairs restroom, the urinals are very close to the door. It could be uncomfortable for some boys to use the restroom because the doors are wide open with a monitor standing in the doorway. The girls might also feel as if their privacy is violated. There have been some occasions where a girl has had to announce out loud they are on their menstrual period so they would need to cut the line in order to take care of their business.
Although this policy does prevent overcrowding in the bathrooms and halts prohibited activities at least during passing periods, the policy can cause problems with attendance, class preparation and student privacy.
The solution to these issues is to allow more than five students in the bathroom and to keep track of the number of students with door closed.