Picture this: you’re at lunch with your friends, and the bell rings, telling you it’s time to go to your next class. As you head to class, you stop by the restroom on your way to class, only to see the door is closed. You try to turn the handle, and it stops short. It’s locked. You try all the bathrooms in that hall, and they’re all locked. Then, finally you head to the bathroom by the AP’s office and it’s wide open. You rush in, and there’s a line to get in and use it, and by the time you get to use it, the bell rings, and you’re late to class.

This happens too often to all of us, and there is a clear reason behind this. There aren’t enough bathrooms unlocked for students to use throughout the day. Now, it is understandable that the reasons behind locking the bathrooms are in the best interest of students, trying to prioritize their safety. However, what is not taken into consideration is the fact that by locking the restrooms during passing periods, this will contribute to more students losing instruction time and create more foot traffic in the halls as students are trying to find an open bathroom.

Now, there are two solutions to this problem. The most obvious solution would be for more bathrooms to be unlocked, giving more students a chance to use the bathroom. The number of students in school and the fact that many students decide to use the bathroom for different purposes than originally intended makes it hard for everyone to be able to use the bathroom. Due to there being multiple uses of the bathrooms, many students, myself included, choose to sit back down, or wait until lunch ends to try again and see if the bathrooms are free. This all causes major inconveniences for students, seeing that everyone waits until the last minute to use the restroom because that’s the only time it’s possible. 

The less obvious solution to this problem would be to extend passing periods by two minutes. This can prove to be a frustrating topic for schools to discuss, because five minutes should be enough time to use the bathroom and get to class on time. However, the Vanguard Staff has to disagree with this theory. Due to the fact that the number of bathrooms are limited, and the passing period time is also limited, this makes it nearly impossible for students to be able to use the restroom and get to class on time. By increasing the passing period by two minutes, this will allow students to be able to get to the restroom and get to class on time.

Circling back, both solutions would work well if well-executed. However, the most effective of the two would be to increase the number of bathrooms open during lunch and during other times of the day. Again, it’s understandable that some bathrooms may be locked for the students’ safety, but closing bathrooms down is counterproductive. This is why the Vanguard staff believes that the most effective solution to the problem about the bathroom limitations is to unlock more bathrooms, allowing more students to use the bathroom and to get where they need to go on time.