CLOSED!
Since November 15, students have noticed that almost all student bathroom entrance doors are gone. Why would the school do that? Is this an invasion of privacy? On the first day of the missing doors, I contacted Eisenhower via the School District’s “Let’s Talk!” option, sending the following message:
“...I wanted to ask what the district thinks of the decision to remove the bathroom doors. A simple comment, concern, whichever you can do.”
A day after the message was sent, Jillian Ceja, Eisenhower’s Assistant Principal, posted a response:
"This is something that has been in the works for the last couple of weeks. When I started at Eisenhower High School in 2018, Mr. Diener was asked by students to put the doors back on the restrooms. These doors had been removed by the previous administration and remained removed for years. Without hesitation, Mr. Diener agreed to place the doors back on all the restrooms. Over the course of the last four years, there have been many incidents in the restrooms across the school. These incidents include but are not limited to marijuana usage, vaping, alcohol usage, fights, TikTok challenges, and skipping. Although we took almost a year off of in-person learning last year, we came back to the 2021-2022 school year, seeing a large increase in all the behaviors mentioned above. As I recognize, most use the restroom for its intended purpose. It is the handful of students who have used it inappropriately who have ruined it for us all, for now. After speaking to students, teachers, parents, and staff members, it was determined by the administration that we would close all of the restrooms except the restrooms in the 600 and 700 hallways. This allows security and administration to mentor thoroughly throughout the day, especially at lunchtime when we see an increase in negative activity. We determined it was best to remove the doors at this time, to ensure the bathrooms were being used appropriately. The restrooms remain private. Our hope is to have the doors back on the bathrooms ASAP-- we are just looking for students to use them for their intended purpose, not as a location to gather with friends during class time.”
There we have it: the reason the doors are locked is for security purposes. Rooted from the problems such as skipping just to hide in the stalls and most recently, the Devious Lick trend of TikTok where the bathrooms became riddled with missing soap dispensers, mirrors, and vandalism. This decision is nothing new. Only the bathrooms in the 600 and 700 hallways are open so the administration can closely monitor any troubling activities. Fortunately, this decision only looks to be temporary, according to Ceja. As soon as the incidents that caused these closers to decline, the bathroom doors will be returned. As soon as the bathroom doors were removed, students raised concerns about their privacy. When asked about the student's feelings of discomfort, frustration, and doubt, Ceja answers with the following statement:
“I know that privacy is the main concern. You cannot see into the bathroom stalls from the hallway. In fact, you cannot see anything from the hallway. It is the same as if the doors are on. You can just hear more, which makes security jobs easier as they monitor.
I have seen great success with this. I now walk past the bathrooms and do not find students gathering or engaging in illegal activities.”
So far, removing the bathroom doors has had positive outcomes. The more progress Eisenhower students make to improve behavior, the sooner we can get to having the doors back on. Keep behaving!