Revoking Potty Privileges- Discipline or Burden?

By Soul Koen and Megan Watson

In the fall semester of 2019 at Redwood High School a series of false fire alarms related to vaping disrupted classrooms almost every day for an entire week.

Set off by students smoking in the bathrooms, frustration and outrage were felt by teachers and students and even the Visalia Fire Department, who by law was required to take time to report to Redwood.

The consequences for false alarms caused by students can be very serious. VUSD’s Code of Conduct, section 13 relies on California Education Code 480090 (k)(1) of “Grounds for Suspension and Expulsion” reports that willful disruptions of the classroom environment– such as activation of fire alarms– are punishable under the grounds of suspension. Yet, even with these consequences in mind, students continued to set off the alarms.

In an effort to reduce false alarms caused in bathrooms, Redwood’s Principal Shin made the decision to lock the main campus bathroom facilities where the alarms were occurring.

Mr. Lor, an administrator in charge of student supervision said “The purpose was to prevent the disruption of education and create a school-wide deterrence of vaping.”

Bathroom closures did not make students happy, but Lor reports that occurrence of vaping in the bathrooms decreased and the overall disruptions caused by the fire alarms “caused a higher totality of disruption as compared to the inconvenience of walking the extra steps to the bathrooms.”

California’s Ed. Code Policy

California’s Ed. Code for restrooms requires that staff and students have access to a certain amount of toilets per population.

For males, it is required that there be one toilet per 50 males, as well as one urinal per 100. As for females there need to be 1 toilet per 30 occupants.

On Redwood’s main campus, there are a total of 58 classrooms, and on average there are an estimated 25 students per classroom according to data obtained from PublicSchoolReview.com

Based on estimations– as well as taking the 51:49% female to male ratio at Redwood– under the standard of California’s Ed. Code of Plumbing there should be a minimum of 27 toilets for females to use and 16 toilets and 8 urinals for males to use.

With only two available restrooms open with a total of 10 toilets for females and 4 toilets and 7 urinals for males, Redwood officials thus did not meet the statewide standard of the proper student population to bathroom ratios.

However, California Ed. Code section 35292.5 states that a school “(a), a school may temporarily close a restroom as necessary for pupil safety or as necessary to repair the facility.” Under the state of constant chaos on the Redwood campus, Principal Shin had complete authority to temporarily close bathrooms.

Legalities aside, were the administration’s efforts in maintaining a healthy learning environment as well as preventing vaping effective?

Effects on the Classroom

Mrs. Moore, English teacher, described the frequent interruption of class time caused by evacuations to the Mineral King Bowl as “frustrating” due to the fact it ruined the “consistency of learning in class”.

And, for those three weeks of limited bathroom access, the student body was forced to either take the extra step to the bathroom or restrain from even using the bathroom at all in fear of missing vital information in class.

“They missed out on curriculum” stated Mrs. Moore, yet she also reports that she appreciated the administration taking action.