Bathrooms are typically used for going number one and number two, but are now used for numbers three, four, and five; meeting up with friends, skipping class, and vaping. The school administration has tried to combat this by putting mandatory sign-out sheets in classrooms, limiting the number of students allowed in a bathroom at a time, regularly checking bathrooms, and issuing detentions to loiterers.
From the perspective of teachers and administrators, students spending a lot of time in the bathroom can be taken as an issue born from laziness. Students would rather hang out with their friends than attend class, so they abuse the ability to go to the bathroom. Others rebel for rebellion’s sake. It is easy to stop at these conclusions, but there is another side of the story adults make the critical mistake of ignoring.
According to many interviewees, spending a lot of time in school bathrooms can be a symptom of a much larger problem. One junior described the bathroom as “an escape.” They elaborated, “Class stresses me out. There are so many people I don’t know or don’t like, and I feel like they’re all staring at me. It gives me anxiety.” A freshman student explained they spend their lunch period in the bathroom because they “can’t handle the cafeteria.” They find the bustling environment “super overwhelming,” so they turn to somewhere they can find quiet and isolation.
“There are so many people I don’t know or don’t like, and I feel like they’re all staring at me…”
These students are not alone in using the bathroom as a place to cope. Vaping in bathrooms is often presented as a naive habit students should cut out, but this framing ignores the vast number of students who are physically hooked on vapes and cigarettes. “I know vaping is bad, but it doesn’t change how I feel,” a senior commented on the conflict between their thoughts and their withdrawal symptoms. Losing this battle results in frequently leaving class to vape. More often than not, the retreat of choice is the restroom.
These testimonies are only a few out of dozens of unique experiences, and they demonstrate why teachers and administrators cannot generalize the reasoning behind students frequenting restrooms.