Bathrooms are Getting too Crowded?

Timberlane staff and students are facing a major problem concerning loitering in the bathrooms. The issue for the teachers is that students are missing valuable class time and are doing activities such as vaping and smoking which violates the TRHS rules. Administration is trying to fix this problem by using SmartPass. SmartPass is an online system where teachers can see how long students have been out and who in the school is out of class. This has helped teachers have more of a grip on students but has not fully fixed the problem.

The TRHS staff take turns throughout the day being “hallway monitors.” Mrs. Murphy, a health teacher at Timberlane has some interesting thoughts and ideas about the bathroom issue. “I think that we need to come up with a solution to stop students from overcrowding the bathrooms during passing time,” Mrs. Murphy said. “I want limited passes a day per student.” She also had to kick out 12 kids during passing time. It seems that the crowd is happening when the students are switching between classes. Mrs. Murphy also said, “the problem is that during class switches; Students stay in the bathrooms the whole next period. If the teacher catches that they were in school, they make the hall monitors go out and look for them.” When students stay in the restrooms they miss classwork and then they’re behind in work.

There is also some controversy concerning the all-gender restrooms. Teachers who asked to be anonymous, do not like the all-gender restrooms because it causes chaos between the girls and the boys in there. On the other hand, some students think they should keep the 600 hallway restroom because of gender identity. This bathroom has been a problem for loitering, but recently Admin has placed teachers outside of the all-gender restroom to avoid too many people going in at once.

Timberlane Admin does not plan on changing anything right now, but is “always open for new ideas”. There are about five bathrooms in total for students right now. Camden Z, a student at TRHS said, “I just don’t want them to take away bathroom privileges for good”. Lyla M, a student at Timberlane said, “ it is mostly girls that crowd in all-gender bathrooms, and I think it makes it worse when boys can also come in”.

The TRHS staff wants change, but it seems no one knows the correct solution. Teachers like Mrs. Murphy have ideas that Admin should consider. Students like Cam just want to be able to go to the restroom without disturbances and does not want his privileges to be taken away. What will Timberlane do to fix this ongoing problem?