Bathroom Doors: Privacy or Safety?

By Quentin Gordon-Smith
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Last year was hectic and unsafe in the bathrooms. Kids would smoke, skip class, and fight. When you walked into the school you could smell the aroma of the smoke and as the day went on kids would pile up in one bathroom to skip class and fight. This issue led to security guards being less flexible because they had to contain the bathroom and prevent kids from smoking, skipping class, and fighting.  This went on all year and the school was viewed as violent. Parents would talk down about East and point out all the fights and drama that goes on in school and would send their children to different schools.

 I am now in my senior year of high school and when I came to school and saw the bathroom doors were off. It surprised me. My thoughts and many other students’ thoughts were about our privacy. I noticed that many people stop and talk to people in the bathroom and few focus on going to class. They look into the bathroom doors, so that is a reason why privacy is an issue. Also in the boys bathroom you can see someone using the bathroom through the sink mirrors.

As school proceeded the principal got a lot of complaints about it from kids, mostly about privacy. Mrs. Blocker commented on these concerns and said, “Fighting, smoking, and skipping was the reason for taking the bathroom doors off.  Security has more flexibility, they can move around and help with other problems instead of guarding the bathroom. Fights have decreased.” 

Staff agree with the decision; they think it's making a huge impact on the school. Mrs. Blocker says she would feel safer if she was a student. She feels that kids are more exposed for just hanging out. Privacy really isn’t an issue because you can’t see someone using the bathroom. The only way to get the bathroom doors back on is to provide evidence that it will be positive. Also after I showed her that people can see through the sink mirrors she said, “I’m going to change that.”

When she explained this to me it changed my perspective because she stated valid points and all she is trying to do is make school better and safer for everyone. I agree with her. I feel like taking the bathroom doors off has cut down on fights, smoking, and kids from skipping class. I speak from observation. So should the bathroom doors be off? Yes, and they should stay off because privacy isn’t a problem and it’s making the school a safer environment for everyone.