Boys’ bathrooms closed to curb misuse
Boys’ bathrooms across the school have been alternatingly closed over the past few weeks in response to various issues and altercations.
“We’ve had an increase in some vandalism, physical aggression among some of our male students, and also some vaping,” Spirit House Dean Matt Walpole said. “Part of the issue we’re seeing is there are groups of students spending time in the washroom not necessarily using the washroom for what it’s meant to be used. So, at different times having different bathrooms locked hopefully can be a deterrent.”
Students have found that it can be irritating to find an open bathroom. “I don’t enjoy it. It is very tedious to have to search for a teacher and ask, ‘Hey, where’s an open bathroom?’ I really don’t know what to do about it,” junior Aden Simmons said.
Metea staff makes sure that there are options available. “We try to make sure that there is at least one bathroom open on the first floor and at least one bathroom open on the second floor,” Walpole said. “By each house, there are some staff bathrooms or gender-neutral bathrooms that can also be utilized.”
Girls’ bathrooms have not been closed in a similar manner due to a lower number of issues like vandalism and vaping.
Bathrooms that are open for use have had their doors open since early January. “We’re constantly looking for ways to ensure that the bathrooms are being used in the way they should be used,” Walpole said.
Avani Shah is a senior and Headlines Editor for Metea Media. This is her second year on staff. Avani is a black belt in Tang Soo Do. She can often be found...
i got yall • Mar 20, 2019 at 12:55 pm
if you go to any locker bank and and stand with the house on your right side then go down the hallway closest to the house the first door on your right has a window in it. if you go into that door their are 2 gender neutral bathrooms that every student has a right to use.
IF THE BOYS BATHROOMS ARE LOCKED WE WILL USE THE GENDER NEUTRAL ONES!!!!!!!
A male at Metea • Mar 20, 2019 at 12:06 pm
Raiding the bathrooms doesn’t do anything! Just lock a few of the girl’s bathrooms like are we really gonna ignore the fact that this stuff happens in the women’s restrooms and no one talks about it!
Uncle Jemima • Mar 20, 2019 at 9:19 am
You should just unlock all the doors it is VERY annoying to have to wait up to 6 periods just to use the bathroom or have to walk halfway across the school just to use the bathroom. Locking the bathrooms literally solves nothing because people will just go to a different bathroom.
Logic • Mar 19, 2019 at 1:08 pm
Open the doors. Closing them is doing nothing. Even if you have people outside the bathrooms things are still going to happen. Students will always find a way to do something they are not supposed to.
BMW_fan • Mar 18, 2019 at 8:04 pm
better solutions than locking the bathrooms:
– install smoke/vape detectors in the bathrooms
– periodically raid the bathrooms and search anyone who looks suspicious
– post teachers outside of bathrooms
– make people sign in and out of the bathrooms. they did this at my middle school and i think it worked pretty well.
– let people vape in certain rooms or in the courtyards. there are several classrooms that never get used by classes more than 1-3 times per day. this would be putting them to good use
if you’re a student, just don’t vape in school. it’s your fault that they locked the bathrooms in the first place. the 1% of kids who do vape literally ruin bathrooms for the 99% of us who don’t. find other places to do it.
Daniel Gerecke • Mar 17, 2019 at 4:49 pm
What’s the point? Most of these comments I could laugh at all day, Because half of you are either to afraid, to put your name down in front of your opinion, or you target only one gender. Vaping is an overall issue in this school and every school across the country. Period. Boys and girls vape. Period. Don’t even say only one gender vapes, because we all know that’s fake news. Yea guys get caught more because they “MONITOR” only the guys bathrooms. We can’t use the “All gender”bathrooms anymore either, when the actual bathroom is locked, and get yelled and threatened by DA’s to get a referral if we try and go 1 or 2. I also think it is ridiculous to have to have a pass to use the bathroom, and if you don’t have one, you get a referral. To go pee? Are you actually serious? I hope I don’t have to experience that one and just get through this Final Last Year.
A student who wants to voice their opinion • Mar 15, 2019 at 11:47 pm
People who are writings these keep saying “just monitor the bathrooms.” how is that idea any better? It is like no metea kid can be trusted. there are teachers already monitoring the doors so no one is let into the school because apparently, that was happening a lot last year, which btw is one of the reasons why they lost trust in us. each staff member has a certain job to do, whether they teach, hand out passes, or write referrals. And even if someone can monitor the bathrooms, do you really want them to be suspicious every time you go to the bathroom? would you really want to be stopped and asked questions? maybe they would even come into the bathrooms to see what is going on. Locking the doors is a better solution than leaving the doors opened and monitored by a staff member. Also, the girls bathroom is clearly unlocked for a reason. the boys are the ones who started the vape problem from last year. Just save the vape at home!!
LiSTeN. • Mar 15, 2019 at 12:39 pm
UNDERSTAND THIS. We are already limited to being told when to go to the bathroom and when we cant go to the bathroom. But now we actually can’t go to the bathroom? Are you serious? alrighty. so what if we try spending the money you take out of our wallets EVERYDAY when some of us cant even afford our own lunches, and use this to buy some detectors, or have some staff and monitor the students that go in and out. Now lets keep this in mind, that NOT ALL GUYS DO THIS. Try to understand that this is really really unfair to more than half the students that attend MVHS, and not all students should be punished for something a few boneheads decided to do. ANOTHER THING. Vaping is on the rise all over the world, and happens in every class behind every teachers back, sad to say it looks like every student has witnessed this at least once in the past two weeks. it goes on everywhere, at home, on buses, at school, at work, everywhere. You can’t stop this completely admit it, nobody can. so lock the bathrooms, everyone else just goes to another place to do the same. Violence? That’s going to be there too. you can’t do much against that one either, no matter where it happens. the only thing we can do against fights is more monitoring. but limiting over 1,000 students to two bathrooms, when there are a lot more in the building, and then letting us use the staff bathrooms but get yelled at for it, noow thats a problem. Also, close the girls bathroom doors, all the guys stare at us and it’s creepy. -_-
Caleb M Berry • Mar 15, 2019 at 12:11 pm
Metea Valley, the true face of sexism in America.
Stainless steel • Mar 15, 2019 at 10:25 am
Why don’t we introduce a certified smoke break in the courtyard during school? Therefore, we wont have a problem with the bathrooms being closed and everyone is happy.
Y00nj1Pictures • Mar 15, 2019 at 9:06 am
I personally (along with a bunch of other people) think it’s stupid that most of the boys bathrooms are locked. I understand if vaping, violence, or vandalism but it shouldn’t have to affect all male students because it’s embarrassing when you have to ask a teacher “Where’s the nearest bathroom?” instead of just going to the one nearest to you. I thin teachers need to be more vigilant about all of this and also not have the doors open because having the doors open makes everyone uncomfortable (even me and I tend to not care about stuff except school and school work). If you wanna continue locking the bathrooms don’t be surprised when the male students give backlash about the problem. Locking the bathrooms will not solve the problems, it will only make things worse.
Daniel Gerecke • Mar 14, 2019 at 8:28 pm
Theres a few problems for me that I don’t like to deal with and I’m sure nobody else would like to deal with either. I think it’s funny to see that instead of solving the issue you are making it way worse on everything. When you lock up 3/4 bathrooms in the school, where the heck is everybody supposed to go to the bathroom? Maybe this is why stuff gets vandalized? Because you guys lock up the bathrooms, and hide behind the curtains instead of Solving the problems, which leads you nowhere.
Lil Big • Mar 14, 2019 at 7:55 pm
I believe you guys should just monitor the bathrooms, I mean there’s 1 bathroom each for each locker bank, have a teacher monitor the upstairs ones and a teacher monitor the downstairs ones. If something seems like its happening that shouldn’t, just go in and have a look and see if it is really happening. However, locking the bathrooms is a really bad move because nothing is preventing those same kids from going into the open bathrooms and vaping, fighting, and vandalizing. Not to mention, it punishes students like me that need to go to the bathroom during passing period and upon finding one, we find out it is locked and the one minute bell rings and you realize you have to hold it in and go another period. It’s, in all honesty, one of the most unintelligent “solutions” to this problem and is not solving anything at all, it just punishes good kids and results in an inconvenience.
Kyle Smart • Mar 14, 2019 at 1:05 pm
Or we could just punish the individuals responsible and treat people as individuals instead of making policies based on gross over generalizations about an entire gender. You know? Because this is still America and not Communist China (yet)
A wild Wooper • Mar 14, 2019 at 12:06 pm
Most (MOST) of these comments have a reaaaaaally good point. I believe ya’ll adults should consider reading them. These kids got the right mindset. Just locking the bathroom doors isn’t going to fix a single thing other then cause complaints, as seen in these comments.
josh zamora • Mar 14, 2019 at 10:31 am
Instead of closing the bathrooms, why can’t they monitor them? Closing the bathrooms do not solve the problem and just make it worse for the normal students.
cow • Mar 14, 2019 at 9:48 am
dang it metea media, I made a long comment and i mispelled convention on it but I added another comment correcting it but you only posted that one and not the original one and now I look like an idiot 🙁
Rubber Ducky • Mar 14, 2019 at 9:24 am
lets have a meeting about this
Dylan McGovern • Mar 14, 2019 at 9:03 am
Closing the bathrooms won’t stop the issue, or at least it won’t be too effective. Boys, can easily go vape, vandalize, or fight in another open bathroom. While closing some bathrooms reduces this issue well, some are still going to be open. You can’t forget, that this is still inconvenient for those boys NOT doing anything, as they might not want to waste more time than they should, to simply pee. So, locking (some) bathrooms is a useless feature, as it can be done in open ones.
cow • Mar 14, 2019 at 8:53 am
convention* not convection lolololol
Male • Mar 14, 2019 at 8:47 am
How come men have also been barred from using the all gender bathrooms? I have been told multiple times that I have not the right to use these bathrooms by teachers and administrators, even though all surrounding bathrooms have been locked. The teachers need to be informed that these bathrooms are for all students, or all the bathrooms should be unlocked.
Gaddafi • Mar 14, 2019 at 8:27 am
*Metea opens all the bathroom doors*
Everyone: Close the bathroom doors, we want privacy!
*Metea locks all the bathroom doors*
Everyone: Open the bathroom doors, we want to be able to use them!
Metea: Well which is it?! Do you want them locked or do you want them to be open?
Kayne West • Mar 14, 2019 at 7:08 am
I think that this is a great idea keeping students in check and knowing their place is like what my best friend president Trump would do
Just Trying To Help • Mar 13, 2019 at 6:45 pm
I think that this is an ineffective way of solving the issue. Considering that vapes are already discrete as it is, this makes it very easy for students to smoke in class, in the hallways, etc. without adults being aware. As a result of closing the bathrooms, in fact, I have seen a spike in the amount of students who come to class before the final bell and quickly take a hit of their dab pen or vape pen in the back of the room while the teacher is still outside greeting their students. To solve this problem is impossible, however, to close the bathrooms in an attempt to solve it will only make things worse. If you really care, why don’t you have a supervisor walking around the locker banks near the bathroom to monitor the people coming into or out of the bathroom? I never see anybody doing this. Suspicions can be addressed by simply walking inside and seeing what a particular student or group is doing inside the bathroom, that is, if you’re not completely obvious about it. Class time is being wasted by having the majority of the bathrooms closed throughout the day, and students are going to be accused of skipping class if they are seen on the other side of the school using the boy’s bathroom because everywhere else is closed. This plan was not very well thought out and if you really want to solve the problem, consider getting some insight from your students because we are the ones who see that majority of what’s going on while hall monitors are concerned about whether or not a student has a pass. Not to put anyone on blast, but seriously, I’m a junior at Metea and even I have better common sense than this.
My name is Jeff • Mar 13, 2019 at 5:47 pm
Closing the bathroom does not solve the problem, it just moves the vapers and vandalizers to different places. I remember in Sophomore Health one day a kid was vaping in class when the teacher was talking two desks away from him. I suggest that the bathrooms are to be kept open, to lure all the students in, but perform periodic raids to catch them and have them reeducated. This way they will learn the error of their ways.
Black Kid • Mar 13, 2019 at 2:04 pm
So you telling me you’d rather not be able to defecate because you think the kids deserve it? That is the most asinine statement I’ve heard in my life the school needa find a better way to solve their lil bathroom issue instead of this it’s just really stupid and irritating to everybody
I gotta pee Metea • Mar 13, 2019 at 1:26 pm
This situation is ridiculous. We need to find a solution that doesn’t destroy the bathroom opportunities of our honest students. Implementing expensive security technology and nicotine detectors can make the bathroom safe for all students. Just last week, for example, I had to hold my pee for 7 PERIODS, that is not reasonable. I am extremely disappointing in our administration for their numerous failures, but this one has painful ramifications. thank you
Bob Ross • Mar 13, 2019 at 1:13 pm
Unequality for men. Lock women bathroom too
dominic moore • Mar 13, 2019 at 1:11 pm
This isn’t equal rights, this not what MLK died for
Krishna Vasudev • Mar 13, 2019 at 12:50 pm
You know, instead of locking up the bathrooms, you could just install vape detectors in all the bathrooms. Also, vapers can either do it outside of school, in which case you can’t do anything about it, or they can just go to a single bathroom/locker room during passing period or before school. Here is an example where it did not work, literally just a couple passing periods ago, I was trying to make my way to the urinal, and there were like 10 guys trying to, “hit up a joint”. Another example was today during my lunch period where there was a fight in the cafeteria bathroom. Although vapers and drug users can take it out of school, at least it will be done out of school with vape detectors in the bathrooms, rather than in the middle of the school day.
Gekyume • Mar 13, 2019 at 12:49 pm
I think the bathrooms should be closed. I was robbed of my Jah coin the other day while in the bathroom. I set them on the sink while I washed my hands. I will never use a metea bathrooms again.
Jewel Osco • Mar 13, 2019 at 12:48 pm
Closing the bathrooms does nothing to solve the issue. If a student is doing bad things and vandalizing the bathrooms, it is most likely an angry response to them being closed. More often than not, closing the bathrooms only really creates inconveniences for both teachers and students because class time is lost when a bathroom is farther away. Overall, closing the bathrooms punishes a majority of people who do nothing in order to make it seem like they are solving an issue.
jake kmiecik • Mar 13, 2019 at 12:48 pm
I find it ridiculous that I have to wait 3 or 4 periods to use the bathroom some days since every bathroom is locked. If kids want to do that stuff, its at their own risk of being caught. All boys shouldn’t have to suffer because a few kids get caught misbehaving. And I’ve been yelled at for using the “gender-neutral” or “staff” bathroom numerous times by teachers and staff so that is also not a viable solution.
coolio • Mar 13, 2019 at 12:45 pm
There is not always one bathroom on each floor. I’ve walked all around the first floor two days, and both times all the bathrooms were locked. I don’t know what has to be done, but this is not a solution.
This is absurd • Mar 13, 2019 at 12:44 pm
Just because there are a certain percentage of people misusing the bathroom does not mean the rest of us have to suffer and have to spend time finding a bathroom that is open to only find it trashed because those same kids think its funny to get back at the school and trash the bathroom so it results in a total waste of time. And we can die from holding in our pee. So this really is not the answer to this problem.
Dontvape • Mar 13, 2019 at 12:22 pm
People who misuse the bathroom deserve this. They don’t use it for what it is meant to be used for. It is unfair to us who just need to go to the bathroom every once in a while, but I agree that this behavior is unacceptable, and hopefully the closed bathrooms will reduce the amount of people who vape or vandalize at school.
Lil Uzi • Mar 13, 2019 at 12:21 pm
Fam this makes no sense this school is broken I wish I can go back to California
Concerned Student • Mar 13, 2019 at 12:17 pm
Can we talk about how this is a direct violation of 410 ILCS 35, the Equitable Restroom Act, which requires provided access to one men’s urinal per 250 people in the maximum occupant capacity for any place of public accommodation, along with one mens stall for every 700 of the same?
Morgan Alvarez • Mar 13, 2019 at 11:58 am
If girls don’t have as many of those issues why do the bathroom doors open? I find it uncomfortable when i’m fixing my hair or my shirt in the mirror and a male teacher or student walks past and stares and watches me as i’m fixing myself. I feel as girls we should have a little more privacy.
Aiden Spenner • Mar 13, 2019 at 11:57 am
One person has to ruin it for EVERYONE. And then they have to close the bathroom, otherwise it’s totally unsanitary to be in them.
This makes it hard for the very well behaved students as they have to waste class time to find a bathroom that might be upstairs or on the other side of the building. It really sucks.
yeet ya • Mar 13, 2019 at 11:56 am
This is their answer to a problem they can’t solve