Students Complain After High School Removes Bathroom Doors — ‘I Want To Feel Safe’
The students have already started an online petition.
nimito | Shutterstock An Illinois high school is being criticized by its own students after implementing a controversial new policy regarding bathroom use that directly violates both their safety and privacy. Oak Park and River Forest High School decided the best solution to combat the problematic activities that have become all too common in their student bathroom was to remove the bathroom doors.
Needless to say, not everyone is on board. It certainly seems unfair that the solution to stop issues with vaping, fighting, and truancy doesn't just punish the misbehavers. This solution penalizes all students, raising concerns about safety and privacy.
Students are complaining after their high school removed the bathroom doors.
According to CBS News, administrators at Oak Park and River Forest made the decision to remove some of the exterior bathroom doors in response to complaints about problematic behavior and activities happening in the school restrooms. Their hope was that eliminating these exterior doors would help prevent students from congregating in the bathroom, as well as target the alleged smoking and vaping by students in the bathroom.
No doors were removed in cases where bathroom stalls, urinals, or even mirrors could be seen from the entryway. WNCT reported that there are also single-stall, gender-neutral bathrooms on each floor, with the exterior doors still intact. The move has apparently already made an impact, as fewer complaints regarding bathroom behaviors are being filed.
A junior at the high school is leading the charge against the school's controversial bathroom door decision.
It's not a stretch to understand why students themselves might have a problem with this controversial attempt to control the bad behavior of a few students by punishing the entire student body. A junior, Laila Rosenthal, immediately disagreed with the idea. Spearheading the resistance, she started a Change.org petition to get the doors back, which has nearly 500 signatures.
"I want to feel safe, and then I feel like a bunch other of my peers — like, I did this for them too," she told CBS News. On the petition, she wrote, "Bathrooms should be a place where students and staff can have a moment of privacy and security."
When it comes to the actual misbehavior that seems to be a problem at Oak Park and River Forest, well, Rosenthal had thoughts on that, too. She told WNCT, "There’s also other measures that could have been taken to prevent vaping in bathrooms, such as smoke detectors, vape detectors, and just other things you could do,” Rosenthal said. “Another thing, at least that I’m worried about, is with school shootings and stuff, if a student is just roaming in the hallway, they can’t go back to their classroom. The door is locked. They go to the bathrooms to try to find safety, and there’s no doors, like I just feel like it’s just so dangerous.”
Many kids accused the high school of ignoring the students' basic needs.
Heated over the topic, Rosenthal explained, "Oak Park River Forest High School's decision to remove bathroom doors disregards these basic needs and inadvertently contributes to an atmosphere of anxiety and distress among students."
Ivan Samkov | Pexels
While the school attempted to tackle the smoking and vaping problems with students, there should be a better way to stop that from happening that doesn't directly violate their privacy. Another junior at the school, Gia Fredrisdorf, pointed out that administrators could've done vape detectors or even put smoke detectors in the bathroom.
Even searching students' backpacks when they enter the school could've worked better than directly removing the bathroom doors. Instead, they chose a method that could even pose as a safety risk down the line.
Confirming Rosenthal's arguments, Fredrisdorf told CBS, "If you're in the bathroom, you have to hide in the bathroom from like a school shooter or something. If there's no doors in the bathroom, that's another risk."
The school eventually released a statement of their own to the news outlet, defending their decision and pointing out that they've already seen a decrease in the time that students spend in the bathroom when they should be in class.
"The decision to remove the exterior doors of most bathrooms at the school was based on an evidence-based practice in architecture called crime prevention through environmental design or CPTED. One of the most frequent complaints that we received last year from parents, faculty, staff, and students was about inappropriate activities taking place in the bathrooms, such as vaping, skipping class, fighting, and so forth."
Students, no matter what is happening, should never have to feel unsafe or feel like their right to privacy is being stripped away just for school admins to enforce rules, especially when there are better and more reliable solutions that exist to tackle the problem and make sure students don't feel like they aren't being protected in the process.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
