Recently, while reading The Condor Current, I came across an article discussing the recent bathroom policy by Kassandra Guerrero and Jamil Little. I commend both of them for their journalism and their concern for students. Before the publication of this article, I had taken note of this bathroom closure and had discussed it with many fellow students.

Every single person out of the dozen or so people I had discussed this with recounted their experiences with the difficulty of finding a bathroom when they were in need. They said they needed to go on an ‘adventure’ to find an open restroom.

Jordan Pulido, a junior-year student at MacDonald, said, “I spent 10 minutes looking for a bathroom, but couldn’t find one. When I went back to class, I got in trouble for being out too long. There are some days when I have to go all the way down to the first floor to relieve myself, which is technically against the rules, but sometimes you have no other choice”.

Serenity Carter, another junior-year student at MacDonald directly affected by this policy, said, “not having as easy access to the bathroom can lead to not being able to replace sanitary products when needed. Extreme cases of not being able to change out, for example, tampons, can lead to things like toxic shock syndrome. These are basic hygiene issues that the school is not meeting”.

 “Condor time is on time” but that’s only when it’s made possible by those in charge. Students should not be forced to choose between using the bathroom and getting to class on time, or even getting to the bus on time. 

Previously, in our academic experiences, we were told that to be studious, we needed to use the bathroom during passing periods so as not to interrupt or miss any instruction. With this new policy, that is nearly impossible; the only chance students have to relieve themselves is during class time since there’s a higher chance a gender neutral bathroom will be open. There are maybe half a dozen toilets open to students on the entirety of the campus, and after school it is even less, with only 2 gender neutral bathrooms being open to students; this is nowhere near enough for the over 800 students who attend MacDonald High School. 

We students now understand the administrator’s rationale behind this policy: to fight vandalism and make restrooms easier to monitor; however that does not make these measures acceptable. This is a well-intentioned but poorly thought out plan that is unnecessarily confusing and actively harmful, possibly even dangerous to students. 

The main reason cited for this new policy is vandalism. I am certain that vandalism is a serious problem in our school, but restricting access is not the answer. While our school is new, these problems certainly are not; many other high schools have experienced vandalism yet they have not resorted to this type of “group punishment”. Why can we not find the specific offenders who have vandalised the bathrooms and reprimand them? 

In the previous article, it cites administrators as having said that they “plan to continue reviewing the system and hope that improved student behavior will allow more restrooms to open in the future”. Our basic bathroom rights cannot be dependent on our “good behavior” for that is unethical and wrong. This bathroom issue is emblematic of a larger problem at our school; a growing feeling of helplessness among students.

Students, we need to advocate for ourselves to help change aspects of the school we object to. The fact that this issue has not been fixed by now is concerning because of how much this matters and affects the lives of students on a daily basis. Take responsibility and take care of the bathrooms so as not to give those in charge any excuses for restricting access. The only way we can hope for this school to get better is if we recognize aspects that don’t work for the educational productivity of our students and work to fix them. 

The peeing condor is currently an endangered species at Kathleen Macdonald High School. Let’s fix that.

(Pee)ace,

Ian Pruden