It’s like a game of Russian Roulette. Taking a gamble as to which bathroom on campus is open for the day can be as risky as losing a large sum of money from a card game. Ever since the brief but devastating “Devious Licks” TikTok trend, the administration has punished the student body by revoking bathroom privileges for the over 3,000 students on campus. While locking the bathrooms solved some of the theft and property damage issues from the TikTok trend, it was not a good idea in the long term to revoke such basic student privileges, making any individual who needs to use the restroom walk around campus to find any bathroom open. Although the trend is over, the administration still has not opened all the bathrooms, making it more inconvenient and frustrating to those who require restroom facilities during the school day.
Hunting for the nearest open bathroom on our large campus, a task that would otherwise take only a few minutes, now might take up half of lunchtime, all of passing periods, and even valuable class time. Before, students were given the convenience of having a restroom open nearby wherever their classroom was, so that excess time would not be wasted. Students have been deprived of this convenience for months now, wasting time that could have been spent in class, studying, or eating and conversing with friends during lunchtime.
On top of the inconvenience of scouring the campus for an open restroom, students face the battle of the perpetually long lines, especially in the girls’ restrooms during all hours of the school day. With only a few open bathrooms, students spend more time waiting in lines. Everyday, the bathroom lines are almost outside the few open bathrooms on campus, and by the end of the day, the restroom looks like a disaster zone, with wet toilet paper coating the tile floor and empty soap dispensers. These worsening conditions in the bathrooms are causing many students to refrain from using the facilities at school at all, risking their comfort and health.
While the closing of the restrooms was a manageable way to handle the Devious Licks crisis at the beginning of the year, this prolonged punishment is no longer applicable. For security reasons, it may be sensible to not open all of the restrooms, however, the majority of bathrooms being reopened would do more good than harm for the students during the school day.