Lakes bathrooms have been locked again…. Because of student misconduct, the bathrooms have been shut down for the second time this year. Throughout the school students struggle to find a bathroom before their next class. While the teachers see this as a temporary win, other teachers already see that students have moved their misconduct to other locations. While teachers and staff investigate what is going on with the students and why they might be acting in such ways, students struggle to find bathrooms in time for their next class, as well as going to the bathroom during class. Now that one problem has been solved, our next big issue is overcrowding. While there is after all 1,500 of us, and only 1 bathroom per building. 

     Teachers have tried alternatives such as taking away hall passes, providing escorts, setting in place hall monitors, since been futile, resorting to the bathroom’s shutdown. Since the bathrooms have been closed the teachers still monitor the halls. Noticeably the students’ behaviors have changed compared to the years before, leaving the teachers skeptical of the future of Lakes. While it is understood COVID has been difficult, staff and students would like to move on. COVID has changed the way we function throughout the school, but we continue to do the best we can with the resources provided, we have made it a full quarter through the year, teachers are growing suspicious as of why the students haven’t settled in yet. The teachers have changed their tactics and are trying to speak to the students about how we can change for the better and ask students to encourage their peers to as well. 

     The students understand that the behavior of other students is the reason for the shutdown, although students feel that the situation could have been handled better. Students were asked what they think the teachers could have done instead of shutting the bathrooms down, the students responded with the idea that the students that ruin the bathroom are usually the same students repeatedly, and that if the teachers cracked down more specifically on those students, the problems would cease. They do not feel that it is fair they get the same punishment as them, since they have not done anything wrong. The students do not see how shutting the bathrooms is going to make a difference, regarding the fact that the teachers and staff have tried that already.  

While students like being a community, along with their fellow peers, some students feel that they are losing their individuality. Students feel like it is being stripped from them in the process of trying to find a solution to the bathroom crisis, as well as other issues. As students we work as a team, and do the best of our ability to learn, and help others along the way, but when students do not try, and cause mischief in the school, the students feel that they are held at the same standard, leaving the students feeling unheard, and unseen.