I understand where they’re coming from- or I think I do. Kids skipping classes generally means going to the restrooms to scroll on their phones or hanging with friends. Stopping this is not an easy task for administrators or teachers, let alone dealing with the random noises emanating from restrooms during class.

I am glad that our administration is aware of the bathroom problem and is taking action to improve it. However, I find their approach flawed. Though I am 17 and unfamiliar with the difficulties and intricacies of running a school with 2300 teenagers, I feel strongly that the door-locking campaign is cumbersome and counterintuitive. Possibly, we will adapt to it over time. However, more likely than not, the policy will prove unsustainable.

The problems with locking the bathroom doors are numerous. To list a few: lines extend out the door in certain cases (this is mostly a problem seen within the girls’ restroom) due to overcrowding. Students who never before missed a minute of class must now burn instructional time searching for a bathroom or waiting in lines. The bathrooms that are now locked are often not the ones that caused problems before. One locked bathroom per side makes the entire concept of locking ineffective. Monitoring each side still requires the same number of administrators. With each floor having at least one bathroom open, monitors still have to have eyes on both sides, defeating the stated purpose of locking bathrooms in the first place.

The bathroom door locking is a burden on the whole school. While it may restrict the areas in which rulebreaking could occur, it does so at a huge cost. It is simply not worth the trouble. If one bathroom is closed, kids then crowd the unlocked bathrooms. If bathrooms are closed until only good behavior occurs within, then there will be none left. The bathrooms are not the problem- the users are. If the main issue is skipping in the restrooms, then solve that issue another way. Don’t lock the bathrooms and take away the right to a restroom for students. Target accountability, not the bathrooms.