It is certainly a struggle to advocate for oneself during the long, busy school days, but it is a universal privilege to use the bathroom. Every day at 10:10 a.m., I use my nutrition break to use the bathroom, as do most students. And every day, it takes me on average 15 minutes to wait in line for the bathroom–yes, I timed it. Just waiting in line to use the bathroom each day takes up the entirety of my nutrition break, as it does for the majority of students as well. There are three women’s bathrooms, two men’s and two all gender single-stall bathrooms accessible for students, but throughout the day, only one of each is open.
The school announced the new bathroom policy in October of this school year, stating, “Beginning Monday, October 6, restroom access during instructional time will be limited to B and C buildings only. All restrooms will remain open and available during nutrition and lunch periods.” For the past two weeks, the D-building has been the only available bathroom, limiting access to only one side of campus, and during nutrition, only B and D are open, with dozens of students wrapped around the building.
There was an alleged additional statement from the school saying that the restricted bathroom access is due to staff shortage, which is justifiable, but I don’t see the issue in just letting the other bathrooms be free. It’s frustrating to see what seems to be staff hanging around the B and C bathrooms during class, watching me walk to the D bathroom building on the opposite side of campus from my 4th period English class, taking away valuable time from instruction and overall causing distress among students.
When girls are actively cutting in line and getting into arguments as to “who was there first” or “who needs to use the bathroom more,” it becomes disruptive.
This is not to condemn the school’s job at maintaining an efficient bathroom policy, but is to simply allow transparency between staff and students, which I feel often lacks when policies like this are put into place. It’s hard to account for each student, and I understand why this decision was made. I am not going to sit here and act like students do not use bathroom breaks as an excuse to skip class either, but I think there needs to be a greater trust between staff and students so health and accessibility are put first.