After Mrs. Nemeth’s end-of-midterms announcement alluded to a change in our bathroom procedures, many were left wondering what would change. Students were left disappointed to learn that the new bathroom policy was not the long-awaited opening up of the bathrooms, but instead the implementation of bathroom passes. 

These bathroom passes work like so: a student wanting to enter the bathroom must take a pass from the wall outside of the bathroom, put it on the outside of their stall or on the wall over a urinal, do their business, grab the pass, put it by the mirror, wash their hands, grab the pass, and put it back on the wall for another student to use. For the past three days students have added the passes into their bathroom routine and it has proved to be ineffective, unsanitary, and convoluted.

Problems with the Policy

As stated in the video sent to all LHS students and staff, the issue of crowding in the bathroom is why the administration has implemented this policy. But as seen this week, the crowding has instead entered the hallway, rather than inside the bathroom, in the form of a line.

These lines have formed due to the time it takes for students to move around the passes from wall to door and vice versa. The natural routine of any bathroom is that when you leave a stall you are immediately replaced by the next in line. With the passes, students in line have to wait for students washing their hands to finish and put up their pass. This might seem like a very small issue, but when this time is added up among all of the students using the bathroom, it wastes time and will lead to tardies. 

“The passes don’t make sense because if I am done using the bathroom and washing my hands, the people outside think I am still using the bathroom. So they could already be in there,” Junior Isabella Seara said. 

Another concern echoed by the student body is how unsanitary these passes could get, especially given how unsanitary our bathrooms are to begin with. People are gross. Every student at LHS has seen something gross and traumatizing in that D-wing bathroom. Imagine how gross and traumatizing the passes are going to be by the end of the school year. 

One student who wants to remain anonymous and did not want to touch the pass said, “The only safe way of using the cards is to wash your hands after using the bathroom, hang the card back up and wash your hands again for safe measures. It’s so annoying.” 

Many students have been doing this, as putting the passes back on the wall outside completely negates the hand washing they just did. This is a valid concern. One proposed solution was having a hand sanitizer stationed outside of the bathrooms to allow students to clean their hands after touching the passes. 

While in the hall, I observed Mrs. HB spraying down the passes with disinfectant, ensuring that the passes are properly clean. Despite this effort, I am left unsure of its effectiveness when there are over 700 students at LHS. When approached, Mrs. HB declined to comment on the new policy.

Senior Allison Lewis came up with a potential solution of her own for the unsanitary issue of the passes, saying, “Instead of bringing them into the bathroom, we could just turn over the pass to indicate one of the stalls is occupied.”

Not only are these passes gross and a burden to carry, but they are not productive. They can get lost, fall behind doors, disappear in stalls, get stolen, or even get flushed down the toilet (I’ve heard threats). The possibility that these passes can escape their hooks is very real. It takes one delinquent to steal or flush these passes, which makes this process take even longer. 

“My pass almost fell into the toilet while trying to put it on the door,” one student recounted, “It would’ve been flushed down if it fell.” 

All of these issues pointed out by students are valid, but I believe the main issue is how these policies make students feel. Being monitored all day like we are in the second grade, doesn’t just feel annoying, it is demeaning. Senior Allison Lewis echoes this feeling stating, “For a lot of students this is another chore and it feels frustrating to be monitored in the bathroom and treated like a child when I am nearly an adult.” 

We are constantly told that we cannot be trusted in the bathroom, so much so that we need a monitor watching us all day. This makes all students, but especially those who are not breaking the rules, feel like administrators do not respect their privacy and do not trust them. Maybe that is fair. There definitely are students who are smoking and vandalizing, but to those who don’t, all of these procedures are unfair.

Another Bathroom

Many students feel that this crowding is due to our single bathroom and that opening another bathroom is the only solution. But for years this request has been denied. Whether it be the vaping epidemic, the devious-licks of the post-covid era, or vandalism, they have always found a new reason to deny us of another bathroom. 

Mrs. Nemeth offered a new reason for our singleton bathroom stating, “We only have one bathroom open due to a lack of staffing to observe and be present during passing times. It’s by law we have to have eyes on students at all times.” 

I do understand why monitors are required, a million different types of emergent situations can happen in the bathroom. However, it can be seen as invasive. With the intense monitoring we have and with the implementation of passes, students are fed up with the bathroom, many abandoning the practice altogether. It is really hard to have a “peaceful” bathroom experience when there is a monitor yelling at you to “hurry up,” and “get out.”

The Solution

The only real solution is to open another bathroom. At least one other, preferably upstairs. I understand that we do not have the staff to monitor, but at least one other open bathroom is needed. People will vape anywhere, vandalism is not unique to bathroom stalls, and the passes are soon going to be breeding grounds for new illnesses no one has ever heard of. The crowding crisis the passes are meant to solve is a direct result of our single bathroom. We need another bathroom, not passes that take up our time dealing with. 

For my entire high school experience, the bathroom has been an issue. Debates about our lack of bathroom accessibility have run rampant with new arguments coming out every year to no avail. There have been articles, Facebook posts, complaints after complaints, and no change has come in the over ten years LHS has had only one bathroom open. These passes have brought up this issue again and once more, students are sick of our predicament. 

In Massachusetts state law day schools like ours are required to have “One toilet and sink for every fourteen students.” With approximately 750 students at LHS, at the lowest we need 50 stalls. We have 7 stalls in the D-wing bathroom, which is not sufficient enough for our student body in the slightest. Now, with the bathroom passes, it makes this deficiency glaringly obvious. 

While we have other single-stall bathrooms in the nurses office, library, and locker rooms (only available during gym class), as well as the bathrooms that require a key to access, those are not enough for our school to properly address the crowdedness issue, and definitely do not make up for our illegal lack of stalls. 

Somehow, despite our seemingly lacking amount of stalls, Mrs. Nemeth assures us that “We had the Board of Health come in, and they checked to see if having one bathroom open was breaking any laws, and it’s not. So we’re good.”

With just one short week of using these new bathroom passes many students already feel it is unsatisfactory. 

Here is what they had to say:

Junior Isabella Seara decided to use the bathroom during passing period and had this to say: “I had to rush even more than I already do in between classes to use the bathroom. The passes are just wasting more time and causing more congestion in the hallway.”

Senior Allison Lewis takes issue with the unsanitary aspect of the passes, saying, “Today was a good day to have long nails, I did not want to touch the pass. This is so gross.” 

Senior Grace Budzyna, whom I found waiting in line during fifth period, says, “I was standing there for five minutes, I finally got in, and she was already telling us to ‘hurry up’ because people were waiting. I just wanted to pee!”

Another student was even scared to use the bathroom, “I have to go pee, but I don’t wanna go.” 

I have made it a point to walk past the bathroom this week to observe the line and congestion. All week, I have seen a line by the bathroom consistently. This is not typical for our bathroom. Yes, there is always a line during fifth period, but never this bad and this frequent, proving how this procedure is not helping make our bathroom experience more peaceful, but rather, making it take longer.  

The student experiences speak for themselves, this problem is creating more crowding, making students feel grossed out, and is wasting time. While I believe this bathroom issue needs to be solved rather than ignored, whether with the addition of another bathroom opening or not, this is not the solution. Due to this issue affecting students primarily, I believe that with the help of our student council, students should come up with our own policy that works for both students and administrators, rather than one that is not productive and is frankly disgusting.