Bathrooms are scattered around the school for singular use, so students can use the bathroom privately. Unfortunately, they have been made impossible to comfortably use with vaping, lack of hygienic items, and students abusing passes.  

Within the first six weeks of school, we have already experienced three false alarms. One of these alarms was set off because someone’s vape released smoke in the bathroom, triggering the fire alarms.  The bathrooms have become uncomfortable for most students to use because of the constant humidity, smoke, and the too-sweet smells of vape flavors. Fire alarms should not be disrupting classes and vaping students should not make the rest of us take the punishment for their irresponsibility. 

This is not the first time the bathrooms have been used for something other than their intended purpose. Feminine hygiene products have been improperly used; stuck onto walls, thrown on the ceiling, and scattered across the floor. Instead of solving this issue, administrators and staff have simply stopped restocking the bathrooms with feminine products. Admin’s solution is a lose-lose situation for both the girls and the school. The attendance has been affected by girls who are too embarrassed to be at school because the school couldn’t provide the simple necessities that they need. 

According to the National Library of Medicine, “Studies have proven that lack of access to menstruation products negatively affects school attendance, academic performance, and individual health.” Not only does the lack of menstrual products affect the many girls who are in need, but it affects the school as well.

Bathroom passes are yet another issue. The school has tried to resolve the problem of multiple people being out of class at once by limiting the number of students allowed out, but this has proved problematic with constant abuse of the passes. Students regularly misuse the passes to walk around with friends, meet up in the bathroom, or just sit in a stall and waste time on their phones.  While this is happening, there is likely a student who desperately needs to go use the bathroom. While Sometimes students really do need a break from classes to take a minute for themselves, they should be taking only a few minutes, and not keeping others from having access to the pass.

Bathrooms are not the same space as they were before, students can’t find comfort, even for the few minutes they’re in there for. Students need to start taking care of the bathrooms instead of abusing their privileges.