Are The Bathrooms Being Overused and Abused at LHS?

Bathroom trips have gotten out of hand! That is why teachers and administrators have been doing their best to solve this problem. On the week day back from winter break students started having new bathroom policies. Bathrooms are now closed 10 minutes into the beginning of class and the last 10 minutes of class. This was implemented due to the overusing of the bathrooms during passing periods or throughout classes.

Maria Ocegura was interviewed about this new bathroom policy. She was asked a few questions regarding it, the first question being if she thought these policies were fair. She responded to this saying that “No, when you gotta go, you got to go”. The next question was if this change benefited students, she replied “In a way, it doesn’t, if you need to use the bathroom you can’t focus”. This was followed by asking how she, herself, accommodated to the news. Ocegura stated “I had to retrain my bladder system and digestive system”. Finally, she was asked if she thought the new policy would solve the problem. She said “I think it will to a certain extent but I don’t think it’s fair because not everyone takes advantage of the bathroom passes”. 

Former LHS teacher Dean Williams was also interviewed and was asked why he thought the administration came up with this. He responded with “I think it just had to happen, the bathroom policy was being so abused and there were so many kids in the wrong place at the wrong time that they had to do something”. The next question was if this changed students. He thinks that, “In the big picture it ultimately will, if it works, it’s going to have the students in the building wherever their class is, where they belong, and where the teaching is happening”. He added, “If they’re out running around and goofing off instead of the bathroom then they’re not where they should be”. Then Williams was questioned if he knew what was the exact case for this new policy. He responded saying “I don’t know, I suspect it was an accumulated thing, all the kids are running around”. He also commented that “In  January they initiated the policy so I imagine all the other months they just tried with what they had, but it was obvious that something else had to be done”. After this he was asked if he thought this would help the problem. He stated “I have seen an improvement already”. He added to this also saying “I have kids come in, the first thing that they ask is if they can go to the bathroom, now they know they have to wait, which kind of sucks but then again they’re here and they hear me introduce a lesson”. Finally, Williams was questioned about his opinion on whether it benefited teachers or not. Replying with “I think only in the sense that it makes it easier to make sure that our lesson gets shown to all the kids, as opposed to some kid who has been out of the room for 20 minutes using the bathroom or doing whatever, now they are here, ideally they are getting the lesson”. Teachers definitely differ from students on this new policy. Although we all hope this policy helps to stop the abuse of bathroom passes.