Locked Bathrooms Cause Problems

By Kemari Thomas

Opinions Reporter

 Locked bathrooms have often become an inconvenience for students, causing them to be late for class or seem to be wandering the halls. 

Amiyah Rice shows one of the problems in our school, locked bathrooms. photo taken by Laron Mccollum.

Although most staff and students agree that you should be free to use the restroom when you have to, locking the bathrooms makes it easier for the staff, specifically the security guards. Part of the reason is that students do tend to use the restroom for extracurricular activities or as an escape from class, but that doesn’t go for everyone. 

“It’s kind of annoying having to walk across the school when you really need to use the bathroom; you only get 5 minutes to go. And other times, the bathrooms are filled with students, and you can’t even go,” Austin Delby said.  

“To be honest, it would be too much of a hassle to keep up with, the main cause being that we don’t have enough security to guard all bathrooms,” Officer Abrams said in regards to keeping all of the bathrooms unlocked.

Despite those statements, students, teachers, and security guards gave their thoughts on the solutions to make the bathroom situation work for everyone. Security officers stated that the best option, possibly the hardest, would be if students simply used the restroom for its cause. An option given by Officer Price was to possibly have scanners in the bathroom so it would be known who was in and out if there were to be problems, something he noticed another school did.

 Five minutes may not be enough time for someone to use the bathroom, be in class on time, and probably take a decent walk to use the restroom. 

“Maybe they can unlock all bathrooms for about ten minutes after the passing period, then lock one of the back bathrooms in each hall during the rest of the class period,”  Joshua Hill said.

 Making the bathrooms more accessible when necessary and slowing their usage during class time is essential to students.