The lack of bathrooms in BSM’s Atrium is a problem
Senior Erin Long discusses the lack of bathrooms near the new learning space.
May 8, 2019
Hello, and welcome back to another bathroom discussion. This time, we will be talking about the bathrooms, or rather the lack thereof, in the new atrium space and classrooms.
Okay, so there are no bathrooms in the new space. That’s annoying but understandable. There might not have been room for them in the floor plan or blueprints, and that space is pretty wonderful in itself. Also, it’s fine because I can use the theater bathroom now. But wait, those are still locked. Where do I use the bathroom? The main bathroom? That’s too far and has too many problems. What do I do now?
The closest bathroom to the new space is the theater bathroom, but sadly, they’re locked during the school day. “The theater bathrooms have been locked in previous years. The reason is that we have a concern about students being in that bathroom vaping. The main hall bathrooms are open and available throughout the school day for students and the main hall is more public––students know that they are being seen going into the bathroom––we don’t have hall prefects inside the bathroom but we’re able to monitor who comes and goes in those main hall bathrooms in a way that we can’t in those back hall bathrooms,” principal Dr. Susan Skinner said.
I understand the concerns but come on. It takes too long to walk from the basement to the main hallway, and I don’t want to miss class––I am 5’2’’ and my short legs can’t move that quickly. In addition, some teachers don’t allow students to be gone for that long, and they might become suspicious of their activity in the bathroom––when in reality, it’s just the long walk that takes so much time.
We don’t have hall prefects inside the bathroom but we’re able to monitor who comes and goes in those main hall bathrooms in a way that we can’t in those back hall bathrooms.
— Dr. Skinner
Truly, I understand the lack of supervision, but we can fix that. With the huge number of classes in the basement, tons of people and teachers are in the theater hallway or are somewhat close to that area. If that still isn’t enough supervision, we could put teachers in that theater hallway or in the atrium. It’s so much easier for students in free hour or in the basement to walk to the theater bathroom, and it’s probably quieter for classrooms in the main hallway.
So, we have no theater bathrooms; we have no new bathrooms. Seems like we have a problem. Either we need more bathrooms, more passing time, or, the easiest solution, we could just unlock the theater bathrooms.
