The Mycenaean

It’s been over a year since the bathrooms were shut down due to vaping issues, but is it time for them to be reopened?

“I think they should be reopened because the bathrooms that are closest to the classrooms are always closed…It takes even more time, wasting class time to go to the bathroom,” said Nina Whittington, sophomore.

Due to these issues, the bathrooms were originally shut down in 2023 but have remained closed even with student improvement. 

This year the bathroom shutdown has been updated; each bathroom has a foldout sign and a built-in caution tape that can be withdrawn, allowing the admin to change out which bathrooms are usable and unusable.

“I think they should be reopened because people have to use the bathroom, and it’s not convenient to close some of them and make them walk all the way around,” said Cooper Childs, sophomore.

The vaping issue was once so big that fire alarms went off due to it almost every day, but since it’s shut down the issue has dramatically decreased.

“We have to make good choices [to keep the bathrooms open],” said Whittington.

Teachers are still monitoring open bathrooms this school year, and color-coordinated clipboards have been added to ensure students find the closest bathroom. The clipboards also decrease the amount of skipping and vaping done.

When the bathrooms were first shut down, many students complained of long lines and being late to class due to bathroom lines, this issue has slowly dissolved and has not become as much of an issue.

“I feel like there has been a lot less of a line for the bathroom this year,” said Childs.

While the issues with the bathrooms are improving, many students would like to see all the bathrooms at Leesville reopened.