Chronically Closed Bathrooms – What’s the Deal?

Redwood High School bathrooms have been closed on campus due to multiple reasons, here’s what students and staff think.

By: Abigail Ray

The new rules for the bathroom are very well-known among Redwood students.

Only one bathroom is open during passing periods, and bathrooms are locked for the first and last ten minutes of class.

Teachers are getting more stingy with letting students use the restroom during class. On-campus supervisors lock the restrooms during passing periods, and even during lunch. So when are we supposed to go?

According to California state law for schools, “The school shall keep all restrooms open during school hours when pupils are not in classes, and shall keep a sufficient number of restrooms open during school hours when pupils are in classes.”

The law states that there should be toilets available for every 40 students. That means that if a bathroom has five toilets, one restroom per 200 students needs to be available at all times.

Redwood’s population is about 2,500, which means there need to be 12 bathrooms available at all times, which we all know is not the case.

Acacia Eppling, ’27, says that, “It makes me so mad. I went to the English building bathroom and it was locked, and then I went to the “jail” ones and they were locked, then I had to go all the way over to the Band room bathroom and they just barely opened it.”

Photo of the upstairs english building bathrooms
Photo A.Ray/Gigantea

Students are left scrambling during the passing period to find an open bathroom, making them late and often causing additional stress to an already stressful day.

Bea Du Toit, ’26, says, “It’s super frustrating. Students shouldn’t be limited to using the restrooms”

The real question that all Rangers are asking is “why?”

On-campus supervisor Lea Padilla, who’s been working at Redwood for five years, gives us some insight, saying, “We need supervision, that’s why we close them during certain times. The reason why the other ones are closed are because we need someone there.”

According to Redwood’s new rules, all bathrooms need to be supervised, and if they cannot be, they aren’t opened for student use.

The need for increased security and supervision is supposedly “fights and vaping” that happens in the privacy of the campus bathrooms.

Padilla adds, “On campus behavior has improved a little bit. I’m not going to say 100% because it hasn’t, but it’s improved some.”

Sacrificing the use of all the bathrooms to all students due to the behavior of a few misguided ones doesn’t seem effective or fair to the students who follow the rules.

“Open the bathrooms,” Epipling adds, her ask echoing the voices of many ordinary Redwood students who just need to use the bathroom.