Metea Valley introduced a new bathroom policy which was implemented on October 16. Bathrooms around the school will be locked if there aren’t bathroom monitors stationed outside as well as once school is over. Specific color passes are also assigned for each part of the school. This is meant to encourage safe, responsible, and appropriate bathroom usage.
Under the new policy, bathroom monitors will only allow three students in the bathroom at all times and doors will be locked if a monitor is not out there. This is to prevent unnecessary crowding and unwanted behavior. Dean David Schumacher believes that it is important to have monitors to ensure safety.
“We put them [monitors] in areas to make sure that the building is safe,” Schumacher said. “This is the first year that we said there will be no area that is unsupervised.”
After school hours, all bathroom doors will be locked except for Victory and Merit bathrooms, which will remain open. If a student is unsure about which bathrooms are accessible, they can visit a House and ask which ones are available.
In addition to this new restriction, a new pass system has now been put in place. Each wing of the school has different colored passes: White for Merit, yellow for Victory/LMC, blue for Honor/F2100, green for Spirit, and orange for A-wing/PE.
“We are trying to prevent students from wandering around the whole building,” Schumacher said.
However, there have been conflicts of interest with the students with the new rules. Junior Abbie Welch believes that it is now a hassle to try to go and use the bathroom.
“It’s a little annoying with a five-minute passing period, sometimes you have to walk halfway across the school just to wait in a line for five minutes,” Welch said. “Then you have to run to class because you don’t want to be late and you don’t even end up using the bathroom.”
Administration decided to reinforce all these new rules in order to restore a sense of security to students. In the past, students have reported feeling unsafe in a bathroom setting due to drug usage, fights, large crowds, etc.
“It really hit us [administrators] when students were saying that they felt unsafe using the bathroom,” Schumacher said. “So we want to make sure everyone does feel safe and that we are here.”
