This article was updated Nov. 19 to include a new podcast episode from senior Caitlyn Kennedy.

Due to the continuation of “inappropriate behaviors,” the school has started installing bathroom doors with locks around the facilities. Principal John Burdett sent an explanation of this change in an email Tuesday, Nov. 2. He said the installation of these new doors will help with monitoring school bathrooms and “prevent the further destruction of school property.”

One bathroom will be unlocked in each section of the school. In the email sent by Burdett, the bathrooms that will be open for students to use include the west side of the science hallway, across from the math and world languages workroom, across from the English and CTE workroom and across from the social studies workroom. The CTE bathrooms found near the main hallway will still be open for student use, and the bathrooms across from The Nest will have doors installed to replace the ones that were destroyed two years ago.

“For students that don’t misbehave, we want them to come into the bathroom without any incidents,” Burdett said. “I don’t want any student that doesn’t want to be bothered to be bothered. It’s also a sanitary issue when you don’t have soap, or you don’t have toilet paper. We monitored more, which took away from teacher’s conference periods, and it took me and other administrators from other things that we liked to do, like see you in the cafeteria or visit your classrooms.”

All staff keys will be able to unlock these bathrooms. Teachers will not be allowed to give their keys to students to unlock the bathrooms. There will be 11 bathrooms still open. The boys bathrooms will also be installed with stall doors.

“We continue to have daily issues with vandalism in restrooms across the campus,” assistant principal John Boehringer said. “In addition, some students continue to use the privacy of the restrooms for other, poor, behavioral choices.”

Burdett wants students to use the bathrooms for “what they’re for.” Students late to class due to bathroom lines or distance from class will not be counted as tardy.

“There’s cameras outside every bathroom, so if someone was not being honest, we can check,” Burdett said. “But, we always err on the sides of students. We’re not in the interest of catching people in trouble. We’ll take away a tardy if someone was late because of the bathroom.”

Installation of the new bathroom doors began Tuesday, Nov. 2.

“With fewer restroom options, it will be more practical for staff to monitor and prevent vandalism and disciplinary issues,” Boehringer said. “We will work with our teachers to ensure that tardies are not given for students who are delayed to class because of the restroom situation. However, students need to take the changes into account, and will be expected to use their passing periods wisely, rather than for socialization.”

Plans to keep the bathroom doors locked are not a permanent solution. Burdett and other administrators asked students how they believed the closing down of bathrooms would affect the building.

“If there’s emergencies, there’s still a bathroom in the student’s main area,” Burdett said. “Now, if we miscalculated that, and we start noticing that there’s a line, we’ll just open another bathroom. One bathroom (in each area) will stay closed, at minimum.”

Burdett said he “strongly encourages” teachers to leave students’ phones at the teacher’s desk, or at a secured location.

“Prosper has significantly more students who follow rules than those who don’t, so it’s unfair that a rule is punishing those who aren’t (breaking it),” junior Ana Ortega said. “The new rule is extremely authoritarian and controlling, which hurts students, seeing as to how schools already heavily resemble prisons. Not only that, but it will cause congestion in the bathrooms, which will create long lines and take time away from students who simply want to use the bathroom and get back to class as soon as possible.”

The backlash and effects on the student body have been “mixed.”

“I personally think that by closing off most of the bathrooms, it causes a delay in learning,” senior Sydnee Udy said. “More students are in the bathrooms during passing periods, which will probably cause more students to be late to class because of the length of lines. Or, students will just hold off on going to the bathroom, which is unhealthy.”

Students say they have been “trying to learn” which bathrooms are still open.

“Having seen many students at PHS with injuries, like torn ACLs or disabilities, that put them on crutches or with a wheelchair, I feel like it’s a liability on certain bathrooms,” sophomore Devine Sanchez said. “It would be very hard for someone with a walking issue, or hindrances like the above mentioned to walk or generally access one, making them more susceptible to accidents, and just problems.”

Senior Lauren Helbling describes how the new bathroom will affect her at school, even after hours.

“As someone who participated in a lot of extracurricular activities that require me to be here after school hours, this is really going to suck because I know most of the bathrooms will be locked when school is not in session,” Helbling said. “There’s already locked bathrooms down the fine arts hall, and, honestly, I’ve almost peed my pants a couple of times because the doors haven’t been unlocked. I understand where they’re coming from, but they already are pretty controlling by making us sign out and tracking us when going to the bathrooms.”

When Burdett first joined Prosper five years ago, all of the bathrooms had doors. Staff and administrators will only monitor the bathrooms of their respective sex.

“It’s a small number of students, so we’re impacting 100% of the students by closing down the bathrooms, but we will monitor (the bathrooms) very closely,” Burdett said. “When I go check the boys’ bathroom, I don’t hang out in there. I just pop in, make sure that it’s clean and that there’s soap and toilet paper.”

The open bathrooms are placed in every other hallway of the school.

“Having the bathrooms locked is really annoying, since I don’t know which bathroom is unlocked,” junior Lisa Pham said. “When I need to use the bathroom, like today, I had to walk around the halls to try and find the unlocked bathroom, but I couldn’t find it. I had a sheep’s head dissection today, so I really wanted to use the bathroom to wash my hands, and there’s a bathroom like right down the hall from my class, but it was locked. So, I had to search the end. I had to go down to the first floor to find it. This is really inconvenient, especially in class, since I’ll miss class time.”

Students should expect to see longer wait times in the bathroom, but administrators and teachers will be aware of long lines and will help show students where other unlocked bathrooms are. Administrators will also be able to open up more bathrooms in popular areas.

“We’re going to grow by another 500 to 800 kids before high school No. 3 opens,” Burdett said. “We’re probably going to have to open them (the bathrooms) up anyways. But, it helps us monitor, to help students feel ‘I can just go to the bathroom and not be bothered, and I can go to the bathroom and have toilet paper, not in the toilet, and there’s going to be a soap dispenser, not ripped open and the soap sprayed all over the floor.’ I hate that it happens.”

Author’s Note: Earlier this year, senior Morgan Reese wrote a news article about the effect of the #DeviousLicks trend. Read more about that article here.