Students and staff take a moment to judge whether or not bathroom policies are worth the hassle, and why there are restrictions on bathroom use in the first place.
By: Shaylin Bogart
For the past few years Redwood High School has been cracking down on bathroom policies based on student behavior, and it continues getting stricter each year due to ongoing issues.
There have been issues pertaining to communication from the Admin to the students about when the bathrooms will be locked, as well as which bathrooms will stay locked or open.
Across both campuses there have been issues on the behalf of the students such as skipping class, vaping, and fighting in the bathrooms when they should be in class learning.
Eve Rachal, ’28, says, “It feels weird to be locking Bathrooms. I remember last year people would have to walk around looking for a bathroom to go into.”
Photo Gigantea.
It’s understood that there are problems with students abusing bathroom privileges, but if the bathrooms are going to be locked, there needs to be more communication when it comes to which bathrooms will be unavailable.
Ms. Elizabeth Vaca, an administrator here at Redwood, says, “Bathrooms are accessible throughout the school day, we just need to communicate which bathrooms are open and where they are better.”
According to Ms. Vaca, she says that the Ranger Hall, Science, and both Sierra Vista bathrooms are always open and available to students all day during school.
There are, of course, reasons why the bathrooms are being locked as well as monitored by administrators as preventative action.
Bryan Austin, a Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) at Redwood, he said in certain situations it is appropriate to lock the bathrooms and monitor them because students go into the bathrooms to smoke, vape, fight, and sell stuff that they should not be selling in the school bathroom.
Jayro Vargas, ’26, he says, “it’s just kind of inconvenient that it’s closed. But for the most part, I think it’s more than fine just to lock up the bathrooms during certain times of day so people can’t just like, hoard them.”
It is important to value the safety of students in the bathrooms and give them the chance to use it without having to deal with people smoking and skipping class in the bathrooms.
Mr. Rojas, a Biology and AP Biology teacher at Redwood says, “some things that might seem unfair are in the name of safety, and some things that seem totally fair if you do them, could be very dangerous to implement, like having all bathrooms open at all times.”
Safety is a top priority at Redwood High school, administrators and staff encourage all students to advocate for themselves and use their voices to make change.
Ms. Vaca says she encourages students to reach out to the administration about current bathroom policies and tell them whether or not the system is working. The administration is open to suggestions to fix problems and find solutions regarding the bathroom.
Mr. Rojas says, “Students that cause a fire alarm to happen, I would love to see a policy in place just for them because it feels like the whole school is being punished for a sub group of students.”
Shaylin Bogart
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