Bathroom Policy at Park High

Beka Ruehle

In September of 2021, the “Devious Lick” trend went rampant on TikTok: a fad where students would post videos of themselves stealing items from their schools -especially bathrooms - including soap dispensers, sinks, and even toilets. Between this trend and routine misbehavior, significant property damage was inflicted at Park High School. Staff at Park were not only concerned with the rising financial burden from property damage, however, but also the well-being of students. Student conflict was high at Park, and it was difficult for the school’s limited number of security personnel to quickly respond to safety incidents. After a few years of attempting solutions to no avail, the administration instituted a policy of keeping second floor bathrooms locked. 

Directing Principal Bill O'Malley explained that the solution of “locking bathrooms” was an attempt to mitigate this rise in student conflict and property damage and was derived from staff and student feedback. He explained that because the school only has four designated “Safety Support Staff” (called “S3s,” but more commonly known as “hall monitors”), and one must be assigned to the front of the building, it wasn’t feasible for the remaining three S3s to supervise and respond to incidents in all of the bathrooms. Throughout this interview, Mr. O’Malley tended to shy away from the phrase “locked bathrooms” because, as he put it, “it’s not locked down.” He emphasized that Park High School still has three bathrooms open for specified genders and two open for gender neutral use throughout the day.

Mr. O’Malley also mentioned his view that bathroom breaks are beneficial to students because the breaks provide them with an intermission within the long 90 minute block. When asked about the potential drawbacks to bathroom breaks, he thought they were “very minimal.”

Both Mrs. Kraczek and Mrs. Betker, long-term staff members and academy team leads, are mostly in favor of bathroom breaks. They both expressed that their classes’ scheduled bathroom breaks allow the students a nice brain break, and Mrs. Betker also mentioned that the increased structure cut down on disruptions in her class. Mrs. Kraczek did point out, however, that bathroom breaks are not without their drawbacks, as her and many other teachers’ bathroom break policies limit students' bathroom autonomy.

Brie Hills, a junior at Park High School, agrees with this sentiment. She summarized that bathroom breaks are nice because they allow multiple students from a class to use the bathroom at once, but can also be restrictive because most teachers don’t allow students to use the bathroom outside of the designated  bathroom break unless absolutely necessary.

Although locking second floor bathrooms was and continues to be an effective solution to cutting down on property damage, Mr. O’Malley acknowledges that since 2020 conflict and property damage have become far less prevalent issues at our school than vaping, which he also deemed a “societal issue.”

Staff at Park had mixed opinions on the effectiveness of bathroom breaks, and they ultimately summarized that although a class-wide bathroom break may discourage students from vaping in bathrooms, it’s not an effective method of prevention. As Mrs. Kraczek put it, “Walking them (students) to the bathroom does not decrease vaping.” Brie Hills also pointed out that locking bathrooms on the second floor results in first floor bathrooms becoming overcrowded, and she mentioned that vaping in first floor bathrooms has not decreased since the current bathroom policy was implemented.

Despite what may appear to be a stalemate in bathroom policy here at Park, the administration is working to find additional solutions to vaping that would allow them to reopen bathrooms. Mr. O’Malley specifically said that Park is pursuing both the installation of vape detectors and the acquisition of "No Vaping” signage for the restrooms. When asked for her thoughts on these solutions, Mrs. Kraczek responded “I think we need vape detectors so the kids who are doing it (vaping) know they might get caught.” Brie Hills mentioned that this fear of repercussions, combined with the reopening of a bathroom if vape detectors were successful, would also limit overcrowding in the bathrooms.

Overall, Park’s bathroom policy is best dubbed a work in progress. The current S3 force is not large enough to provide coverage to all of the bathrooms at Park, but Mr. O’Malley emphasized that if the implementation of alternative solutions is successful, he would love to open up another bathroom.

When directly asked if he wants to keep bathrooms locked, Mr. O’Malley responded, “Would I love to open them back up? I would, once we’re ready.”