The bathrooms at Leesville have been partially shut down since the end of last school year. The bathroom shutdown an issue for all students at Leesville, or is it an issue for just a few?
The bathroom shutdown was put in place towards the end of the 22-23 school year to help combat the vaping issue.
“It’s helped but it also has contributed to more problems caused because now it’s harder to use the bathroom because of lines and you can’t go in between classes so I’m missing out in class to use the bathroom,” said Ava Sells, sophomore. Sells has seen this issue progress since its start last year.
This issue cost Leesville $200 per visit by the fire department. Many students hoped that the bathrooms would be reopened this year.
“I was to think we would get another chance for us to do all bathrooms open, but like, at the same time if it’s costing us money, I kind of figured they were going to be closed,” said Sells.
So far this year there have only been 3 fire alarms that have gone off over the course of 4 weeks. That is far less than last year’s numbers of far more than 45.
Several students have made it clear that the bathroom shutdown has been harmful to their class time.
“It’s really difficult to go to the bathrooms that are closest to the classrooms because sometimes the nearest bathroom will be 5 minutes away and then you’re taking ten minutes out of your class time,” said Sophie Wierzbicki, junior.
This poses an issue because students are given a maximum of 10 minutes to use the bathroom, and any time longer than that is considered skipping class.The only bathroom currently available to the students during their lunch period is the bathroom across the hall from student services.
A majority of the student body would like to see the bathrooms reopened for a variety of reasons. “I feel like some should be reopened because especially during lunchtime time there’s only one bathroom available to everybody so the one in front of the multipurpose room is reopened,” said Sells.
While good intentions were put into play when the bathroom shutdown was put in place, the bulk of students at Leesville are finding inconvenience and frustration from what has become of the bathroom shutdown.
