Isn’t it frustrating having to use the restroom but it being unexpectedly locked?

Students are annoyed with the inconsistency of the bathrooms at school. It becomes a ripple effect when the nearest bathroom to you is locked. You then have to walk farther, ultimately making you miss more class time. Security guards have been locking the bathrooms to prevent students from loitering, but it takes a toll on the students who genuinely need to use the bathroom.
Junior Lizzie Misovec spent 10 minutes walking around school trying to either find an open bathroom or a vacant stall. “I didn’t intend on missing class nor wanted to but I couldn’t find a bathroom to use. My teacher was mad at me when I came back and failed to understand what took so long,” Misovec said.

Security had already made the decision to permanently change one of the student bathrooms near room 150 to a staff bathroom, which caused inconvenience to students who had classes near that bathroom. Junior Daniel Son said, “I used to use that bathroom sophomore year when I would arrive at school but now I can’t because they’ve locked it to students.”

Bathrooms are randomly locked. Senior Kaitlin Mariani said, “I hate that certain bathrooms randomly are locked and nobody is aware until they arrive at that bathroom door. It causes so much inconvenience especially when it’s an emergency.”

Only certain bathrooms contain mirrors, which make it harder to find an open bathroom that has one due to the limitations of mirrors. Groups of friends will often loiter in the stalls, adding to the difficulty of finding an open bathroom. Sophomore Bianca Diamond said, “I prefer to go to the bathrooms with a mirror in it but it may conclude that I have to walk further away from my class. I wish they would put a mirror in every bathroom. Some people would like to check the way they look before returning to class.”

The security guards should just occasionally peek into the bathrooms. Junior Lindsey McNey said, “When I have soccer class downstairs the bathroom is always locked therefore I have to walk all the way back upstairs to use the bathroom. It makes no sense why a bathroom should be locked. It can just be monitored. It’s really frustrating approaching a locked bathroom when you really have to go.”