The rule for the bathrooms in our school is unnecessary. The security locks the bathrooms the first and last 10 minutes of every class, making students more likely to go during the middle of class, forcing them to miss important instruction. I myself have experienced this exact situation before, and I’m sure my peers would agree that they’ve experienced it as well. Countless times I have been in class, and I will ask to go to the bathroom. It’s already 10 minutes into the period, so there is no reason why me going to the bathroom would be an issue. I ask, and the teacher goes; “You have 5 minutes, make it quick.” So I head on over to the closest bathroom, and what do I find but a locked door. Maybe security forgot to unlock it, or maybe it’s just not going to be touched until the following period; either way, I now have no way to use this bathroom. Therefore, I now have to walk to another bathroom, which is all the way across the building, going over my allotted time of 5 minutes and missing important class time. Don’t forget that as soon as I get back, I get into trouble because I’ve been out for too long.
Like I said, this is not just a me issue. I asked one of my close friends and fellow 11th grader, Maisey Zuder, her opinion on this. She said, “I think that it is unnecessary because it’s a bodily function; we are not prisoners. I’m here for 7 hours a day, what do you want me to do?” I completely agree. These issues are not new, and it seems that other schools have experienced this too. South Windsor High School has an entire article speaking about this, with students agreeing and saying things like, “The operating hours should be discarded.”
I was curious about what staff had to say on this, as obviously I do not understand the thought put into this rule as a student myself. A staff member here at GHAA had this to say: “The rule has always been no passes for the first and last 10 minutes of class, and the problem is that teachers don’t uphold that. We are unfortunately punishing students because of adult inactions. Which doesn’t sit well with me; I don’t like that. But, that is where we need to come together as a school to [understand] the policy. We need teachers to uphold it. You know, if there’s an emergency in the first and last 10 minutes, we obviously can’t deny the bathroom to kids. We have also, I believe, abused that policy and have been very lax with passes.”
Our school has these rules in place for obvious reasons. This rule is there for protection, and the idea is also to be able to stop kids from doing certain things in the bathrooms. However, as a student myself who can see these things happening, I can say with full certainty that locking the bathrooms doesn’t stop misconduct from happening. Students will find a way, and punishing the students who are just trying to get through the school day is not the way to fix it.
I believe that GHAA as a school needs to understand that there are more important things to focus on besides the bathroom rules. I agree with the staff member I asked; teachers need to step up and figure out the rules so that students who simply need to use the restroom can. Another CREC school, Academy of Aerospace and Engineering, states in their student handbook that the rule is simply that you need a paper pass to be in the hallways. No ehallpass, no waiting 10 minutes, and true trust in the student body for what they simply want to do: use the bathroom.
