Posted Jan. 22 2024

 Nuurto Gedi

Cub Reporter 

It’s 7:36 a.m., with only four minutes left to pass time. Around 7 students are waiting outside to use the restroom, even more crowded on the inside. Students are frustrated and irritated, wondering why administrators don’t open restrooms to ‘easily’ resolve the issue. 

David David Douglas's campus has multiple closed bathrooms, leaving students with questions as to why they were closed in the first place.  This affects students' ability to be on time to their classes. 

      Several school bathrooms in DDHS, specifically the North Building, have many closed bathrooms that have many students confused, annoyed, and full of questions about why bathrooms are being closed back to back.  When bathrooms are closed, it’s mainly the bathrooms students go to when the main hallway is PACKED with people outside in a line wanting to use the bathroom. If it was known which bathrooms were open, this issue would be smaller than it is now. 

Primarily, the majority of the students at David Douglas High don’t understand the reasons why some of the bathrooms, 3 of the 5, specifically the women’s restrooms are shut down and usually down to one bathroom. “Due to plumbing issues, several bathrooms in the north are closed. To repair these facilities, our maintenance department must interrupt activities at the high school,” said Principal Carradine, who’s been working here for almost 27 years at the high school. “These repairs are expected to be completed summer of 2024.” bathrooms aren’t opening anytime soon this year, but next year. 

Although students are affected by this in many ways, the purposes of shutting down bathrooms are understandable to students when they figure out why. “There are a few reasons for different bathrooms. The ones in the math and gym hallway are mostly closed because of plumbing issues, and then it'll be a whole situation getting everything from the south to the courtyard. One is the social studies and the science hallways are closed because of vandalism,” Mr. Keller, a custodian in the north building who’s been working here for four years so far. 

The situation is not all that bad: two of the three bathrooms that are closed, having to do with vandalism, are definitely that they’re going to reopen. It is a small start.  If the constant vandalism continues, the bathrooms will remain closed for a short period till it’s all cleaned up. Although, students and staff are also affected by this in several ways, mostly students. DDHS students have to do a lot of wandering around to find a restroom, usually packed, a lot of those in PE have to come down to the main hallway bathroom since the gym bathrooms are closed. They’re also not able to get into the locker room bathrooms since those are always closed during class time. The main issues have to do with a lot of wandering around, students out of class for a while, and, having to awkwardly wait for the next open stall. 

Also, another issue that took place worldwide, was students were participating in damaging school bathrooms for attention on TikTok. This mostly occurred for schools in other places, not particularly David Douglas. During this trend, many states reported a stolen soap dispenser and damaged sink in Florida, intentionally clogging toilets and ripping soap dispensers in California. The list goes on, it caused the bathrooms to be shut down. 

  Closed-down bathrooms have been a problem all around the world. Specifically at David Douglas, students should expect all bathrooms to be opened in fall, 2024-2025.