M-A administration notified staff via the weekly staff email about a policy change regarding bathroom passes on Monday, March 23. The new policy divides the campus into four zones, each assigning students to the designated bathroom closest to their classrooms. However, because there were no announcements about the policy, many students were unaware of the situation. Not only have students been uninformed, but they are also left with questions.
The change has made some teachers hopeful, as it promises to keep students from wandering around campus for an entire class period. “I really like it. There’s absolutely no reason why a student who needs to use the bathroom in my G-wing classroom is found wandering the C-wing or the B hallways,” English teacher Jason Hunt said. “There’s a bathroom literally at the end of this hallway; you can be there and back in minutes.”
The previous system was never enforced proactively, leaving students waiting for whole-class periods to use the bathroom. Many teachers tell their students to ask whenever they need to use the bathroom during appropriate times in class. However, students cannot leave until the pass is returned to the classroom. This means that if one student takes the pass only to skip the period, other students who need to use the bathroom have to wait. “So if a student is like, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna go up to Pride Hall,’ it’s only a little bit further away, but it’s actually another three or four [minutes],” Geometry teacher Michele Breen said.
Each classroom gets a designated bathroom pass color to help staff identify where students should be during class. Green passes cover the area around Hello Hall, blue indicates Pride Hall, yellow is for the G-wing, and purple is for the K-wing. The updated rules combat the increasing number of students skipping class and wandering the campus during class time.
“I haven’t heard too much from my own students, but I definitely have seen fewer students wandering on this side of campus who are in a different zone,” Ceramics teacher Mike Burton-Tillson said.
Although this update reinforces rules for students, there are concerns about how it could affect students who can only use a limited number of bathrooms. “How is the system going to work for non-binary students, or students who are using select bathrooms on campus? How does it impact them?” Hunt said.
Students with specific accommodations can work with teachers and staff to figure out how to advocate for themselves to get something that meets their needs. “I think [I’m] just glad that they are trying some new things. And it doesn’t hurt to try new things and see how it works out,” Tillson said.
