By Maddy Gaillard – Staff Reporter 

At Jonathan Law, many bathrooms have been closed during passing time as well as during all lunch waves. This is due to several incidents of vandalism at the beginning of the school year and multiple students staying in the bathroom for a profound amount of time. Only a few bathrooms are open at all times and the rest are locked. 

This bathroom situation is unfair to all of the students and it does not defeat the problem. Having the bathrooms locked just because of a handful of students harms the other hundreds of students that go to Jonathan Law. This also impacts the teachers and the students time to be in class because they are trying to find an open bathroom. While this is a good idea to try and stop this issue, the rest of the school has to pay for a few students’ mistakes. 

The bathroom situation is unfair to the majority of the students in the school. Each lunch wave is 25 minutes long so the bathrooms will be closed for about an hour. This is unfair to the students because they may have to go to different sides of the school to find an open bathroom. This can create conflicts between teachers and students because students may take too long to go to the bathrooms. This can also be difficult for the teachers because it is taking away from their lesson time. Therefore, this can be unfair to the students because they have to take more time to find a bathroom and it is unfair to the teachers because the students are taking too long. 

In addition, the students that are causing this problem are making the rest of the school pay. Instead of punishing the whole school, more options about controlling these problems should be made. Having the whole school face the consequences of a few students is unfair to the students, having to go around the school is very inefficient and frustrating to students and teachers. Therefore, this issue is not truly benefiting the rest of the students in the school and having the students try and find open bathrooms can be aggravating for students as well as teachers. 

A possible solution is having more people watch the lunch waves so more bathrooms can be open. Having the bathrooms closed during all of the lunch waves is the biggest issue so having them locked during passing periods is okay. Therefore, a solution could be to have more people watching the lunch waves or just not closing all of the bathrooms. 

Having the majority of the bathrooms locked may be beneficial at times but there are also many cons. Having the bathrooms locked for a certain period of time can lead to conflicts with students and teachers and it is unfair for the rest of the students in the school. The bottom line is that making sure the students are safe and preventing trouble is good but locking the bathrooms for a long period of time isn’t.