When students at BVH need to use the restroom, the process is rarely as simple as stepping out of class with a hall pass. The student handbook states that only one student may leave class at a time and that passes are restricted during the first and last ten minutes of instruction. In theory, this rule is meant to limit disruptions and keep students in class, but the reality on campus is much more complicated. Frequent bathroom closures, long lines and maintenance delays have turned what should be a quick break into a source of stress and frustration.
While many students see restroom closures as an inconvenience, administrators point to safety as one of the main reasons behind the policy. To minimize risks, Principal Dr. Alexander Salazar explains that bathrooms are sometimes closed or monitored so staff can better prevent fights, drug use or other unsafe behavior.
“It is weighing access with safety,” Salazar said. “We will put supervisors inside restrooms during high traffic times. One of the tasks of a supervisor being inside of a restroom is, number one, making sure that no students are injuring each other. Number two, making sure that they are not using any illegal substances. Sometimes just the mere presence of a supervisor being inside of the same gender restroom helps prevent that.”
Supervisors, when available, are tasked with monitoring restrooms during peak hours such as lunchtime to prevent fights or substance use, but a challenge lies in the limited staffing resources available on campus. If a campus assistant who normally opens or monitors a restroom gets called away for another task, that bathroom might remain locked, even if students desperately need it.
“[With] the limited resources, sometimes the campus assistant that is in charge of opening that restroom all of a sudden gets called away [for a] host of reasons,” Salazar said. “For example, even today, Mr. Sergius was calling, ‘Is the 300s boys [bathroom] open?’ several times. A campus assistant assigned to that restroom was not available, so another rotated to open it. Ideally, supervisors stay outside and enter only when needed,” Salazar said.
Maintenance problems, Salazar emphasized, are another major reason restrooms remain locked for long stretches of time. Plumbing failures, flooding and broken fixtures often leave facilities unusable, and the process of getting repairs completed depends on coordination with the district office. While staff can file repair tickets, the response time is not always immediate, and students are left with fewer available restrooms in the meantime.
“[The bathrooms are closed] usually [due to] maintenance factors. This happens both at the middle school and I have seen here at the high school, where sometimes you get flooding from the ground up, and all of a sudden the bathroom is flooded. It is not that a student clogged the toilet, although that happens too—it is just [that you] simply get flooding,” Salazar said.
For a school of nearly 2,500 students, closing even one bathroom can cause a ripple effect of overcrowding, long lines and frustration. Freshman Gemma Mashburn, who has often found herself stuck waiting in line, described just how overwhelming the situation can be.
“[Waiting to use the bathroom has been a problem] because there is only one open at a time and the school has over 1,000 kids. It is not sustainable. You have a line of 20 girls going [outside the bathroom and] down the lockers. It is hard to navigate—the whole situation is,” Mashburn said.
Students like Mashburn are directly impacted by these closures, often finding themselves standing in long lines instead of quickly handling their needs. Restroom closures do not just affect students during class, but also during extracurriculars and after-school activities. Ultimately, for students the problem becomes a matter of time management, as they must choose between waiting for a restroom or using valuable minutes that could have been spent in class, participating in extracurriculars or making any other use of their time. Freshman Cathiren Mercado shared one particularly frustrating experience she had with the bathrooms.
“I stay here after school because I have other clubs. I went out to pee one time and it took me 20 minutes to go from place to place. [This is] because one bathroom [sign] told me to go to the 500s and then the other told me to go all the way across the school. The bathrooms were completely closed off. So, then I went to the office and [by] then I had already wasted 20 minutes,” Mercado said.
Comparisons to middle school experiences only deepen students’ frustrations. Many incoming freshmen expected restroom access at the high school to be equally reliable, but instead, they have found themselves navigating a more complicated system. With restrooms spread across multiple buildings and subject to inconsistent supervision, accessibility feels less predictable than it did in smaller schools.
“The [bathroom] at the middle school was rarely closed. When it was closed, there would be another one in the 200s that would be open in exchange. There was never a situation where both bathrooms were closed, but I have noticed that [happening] here multiple times,” Mashburn said.
This exact sentiment is echoed by Salazar. Salazar acknowledged these differences, noting that Bonita Vista High’s larger campus and higher student population create additional challenges. Unlike Salazar’s previous campus, Bonita Vista Middle, where restrooms are clustered in one corridor, the high school’s facilities are spread out, requiring more staff and coordination to keep them open. The sheer number of students means more wear and tear on the plumbing, more supervision needs and ultimately more closures when things go wrong.
“It is easier to supervise restrooms there because they are all in one area down the main corridor. There is one in the 300s, one in the 500s and one in the 700s. Maybe it is easier to supervise at the middle school because I am new here, and there are fewer students [at BVM]. We have more than half the students compared to the middle school, so more usage. It is a bigger campus,” Salazar said.
Evidently, bathroom access is not as simple as just opening the doors—as Salazar states, administrators must balance safety and accessibility when dealing with such a large student population. One way administrators have tried to accomplish this by making accommodations when necessary. However, not all accommodations are viable. For example, some students when faced with limited bathroom access opt to use the school nurse’s office bathroom. But as Salazar and BVH nurse Bernadette Currin note, access to the nurse’s bathroom is reserved for students with special medical needs or a pre-established arrangement between the school and parents. Mashburn explains how her 504 plan was used to secure her bathroom access.
“I did [reach out to] both vice principals and Dr. Salazar. The response was very positive. I have a 504 plan regarding the bathroom and they respected that. They gave me a special pass that I could use [in class] if another student is out [with the hallpass]. but the lines are still long and [the bathrooms] are still constantly closed. It is a big fiasco,” Mashburn said.
Even with individual accommodations in place, the problem remains systemic. Mashburn’s special pass demonstrates that the administration is willing to support students with documented needs, but these individual solutions do little to solve the broader issues of overcrowding and frequent closures. For most students, no matter their circumstances, the bathroom situation is still a daily hurdle that disrupts their routines and adds unnecessary stress.
“At this point, I just hold it and hope for the best,” Mercado said.
Sometimes bathroom closures are due to unforeseen circumstances, such as maintenance or a campus assistant being preoccupied. However, inconsistencies in how staff enforce restroom guidelines have also contributed to student frustration. While official policy states that bathrooms should only be closed during the first and last ten minutes of class, students have reported finding them inaccessible for longer periods. For instance, on Tuesday Sept. 2 every single public restroom on campus was closed by 8:15 a.m., 15 minutes before first period begins. This violates the established guideline for bathroom closures which says bathrooms should only be closed the first and last ten minutes of class.
“Our guideline is to close the restrooms the first and last ten minutes of class, not, say, 15 minutes prior. That is something that I need to work with our adults here on campus to make sure that 15 minutes before class restrooms are still accessible,” Salazar said. “We meet with our campus assistants every Monday, [and] that is something I can bring up with the campus assistant team to reinforce this [bathroom guideline]. Getting all our adults, including campus assistants, the assistant principal and myself, on the same page about when restrooms are open and reminding staff that students are entitled to use them.”
Addressing this communication gap between administration and staff is one of the steps Salazar hopes will improve access moving forward. Salazar acknowledges the current bathroom situation and the inconvenience it places on students. With that, he asserted his willingness to listen and respond to feedback from students and parents.
“As I see, restrooms have come up a lot here the first six weeks of school. We got to make some improvements here with our communication among our adults,” Salazar said. “I calibrate between what students are saying, what some student or parent concerns are and what is happening in the academic calendar.”
Openness to feedback has been a hallmark for Salazar as he progresses through his first year at BVH. Such will continue to be the case, he says, as he works diligently with administrators to solve the ongoing bathroom problems. This is not the first issue Salazar has received feedback on; he gives the example of the new north parking lot policy. After receiving feedback from students, parents and teachers, the north parking lot’s policy against non-teacher use was adapted to allow student drop-off and pick-up after 8:30 a.m..
“I knew that the parking lot issue kept coming up. I needed to send out communication to clarify that. And so I listen for feedback, for student feedback, adult feedback via parents and then I respond to that,” Salazar said.
The principal emphasized that the administration is committed to addressing student concerns, particularly when it comes to repair timelines and communication. Specifically by ensuring that all staff are aligned with the current rules and pressing the district for quicker responses to maintenance issues, Salazar hopes to ease the burden on students. Still, he recognizes that the situation cannot remain as it has been during the first six weeks of school.
“We also do not want a restroom available but without supervision, because of student safety. Nonetheless, if students in the first six weeks are saying, ‘we need better access to restrooms,’ then we need to provide better access for all students. We cannot repeat this [for] the next six weeks,” Salazar said.
