Restrooms to remain closed, leaving 1 set per core-class section open

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Kalyani Rao

A closed girls restroom stands in the math hallway. Administrators originally closed the restrooms because of damage from the “devious lick” TikTok trend, where users defaced school restrooms for video content. Principal Dr. John Burdett has said that he hasn’t seen any reports of bathroom vandalization after the school closed the bathrooms. As of now, there are no plans to reopen the closed bathrooms.

Kalyani Rao, Assistant Opinion Editor
January 31, 2022

After months of multiple student restrooms being closed, students said they would like to know whether they will be reopening in the spring semester. According to Principal Dr. John Burdett, no one has reported a need for them, and as of Jan. 31, the administration has no plans to reopen the closed ones.

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We have not had any negative reports about the number of open bathrooms.

— Principal Dr. John Burdett

In each section of the school, one set of restrooms remains open.

Administrators originally closed restrooms in the fall because of vandalism from the “devious lick” TikTok trend, where users defaced the restrooms for video content. Sophomore Sydney Baughman said the closure has made using the restrooms at school anxiety-inducing now that there are fewer available ones.

“At school – especially as a girl – it’s common for others to hang out in the bathrooms,” Baughman said. “As a person with social anxiety, those interactions really stress me out, so I’d rather wait until I go home to avoid that. But, when all the bathrooms were open, it wasn’t that stressful. I could go in, go out and get to class quickly without any awkward interactions.”

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With the amount of students at PHS, class sizes are gigantic, so it takes a while to get in line and wait for your turn to go to the bathroom. Once you finally get back to class, your teacher gets on to you about taking so long and missing valuable class time.

— senior Lauren Helbling

Since the first closing of the bathrooms, Baughman said it also takes students longer to return to classrooms from breaks.

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“Now, I have to miss quite a bit of class to wait in a line with people I’ve never met before,” Baughman said. “On top of that, people use the bathroom to talk to their friends and skip classes. So now, when I go to the bathroom, I’m stuck going to one where there are a few people talking, and then you walk in, and they all look at you, and it’s just stressful.”

Right after the closures, Burdett said that staff members have been assigned to monitor and check restrooms.

“(Female) staff go specifically in the female bathrooms because those back up, and the boys’ restrooms typically don’t,” Burdett said. “During the passing period, we open up a few more, and teachers should convey that to their students.”

According to students, the lines for the bathroom continue to be long.

“With the amount of students at PHS, class sizes are gigantic, so it takes a while to get in line and wait for your turn to go to the bathroom,” senior Lauren Helbling said. “Once you finally get back to class, your teacher gets on to you about taking so long and missing valuable class time. There are much better solutions for this than locking bathroom doors for students, and this needs to be changed immediately.”

According to junior Margaret Lair, the problem with the closed bathrooms creates difficulty in arriving to class on time.

“It’s redundant missing class time going on an expedition around the school, trying to find an open bathroom,” Lair said.

Burdett said last semester that he had seen improvements in the states of the remaining bathrooms, with regards to the “devious lick” trend.

“Things seem to be going well in the hallways,” Burdett said. “This (restroom closure decision) keeps the school clean, and the custodians keep the rest of the school clean, and now we don’t have to worry about soap being all over the bathroom and all kinds of goofiness.”