Stall gaps wide enough to fit a small child, groups of whispering students and general discomfort with the atmosphere are all reasons we’ve heard in interviews with students for why they avoid bathrooms here at East. While discussing the bathrooms with our peers in an AP classroom setting, a lot of students said they didn’t feel safe or comfortable using the bathrooms. Similarly, many questioned why bathrooms like the one found in the B100s have been locked since the beginning of this year. So why is that, and are the improvements currently being made sufficient? We spoke to Principal Jim Richter to hear about what East staff has been doing to help the situation and why they locked bathrooms this year.
Regarding the closure of the bathrooms near the health and FACS rooms, Richter said, “Really, what it comes down to is supervision. We’ve got a limited number of dean’s assistants… it just allows us to better have a presence in those spaces.”
Staff is making an effort to help improve the bathroom environment; however, there are still drawbacks to this approach. Senior Élin Foreman shared the impact of bathrooms being closed, saying, “I like the [bathrooms] that were by the culinary room, but they closed those ones. They were the only ones that actually locked properly and weren’t disgusting.”
The general idea that bathrooms across the school vary in quality is a sentiment we heard repeatedly in our interviews with students. The Main Commons bathroom was brought up frequently as the most disliked.
If the most accessible bathroom to a student at any time is one they find either unhygienic or uncomfortable, it makes using the bathroom while at school a lot more difficult and adds to the reasons that so many people are unwilling to use it.
Concerning the improvement of the bathrooms and if there would be any budget for it, Richter stated, “From a functional standpoint, I don’t think [so]–if there’s anything that is happening that prevents something from being functional, it gets addressed pretty automatically.”
In regards to the funds allocated to public high schools for bathroom improvements, it makes sense that functional bathrooms are the main priority. However, this still doesn’t address the more social issues that make bathrooms a difficult place for a lot of students.
Overall, although staff has been putting in the effort to try and make bathrooms at East safer and more comfortable, we still have a lot of “bath-room” for improvement.
