Atherton High School is a place that over 1,500 people call home. Students spend 7 hours each day in the building and 5 days a week. For many, school is another home, their workplace, and one of the places they spend the majority of their time at. But one of the most important features is something Atherton lacks: usable male bathrooms.
There are three bathrooms for male students in the building: one in the concourse, one across from the library, and one on the second floor next to one of the staircases. However, two of the three bathrooms are often not open, leaving only one bathroom for those male students.
Junior Preston Goodwin says, “I used to be able to go to the bathroom whenever, there was a bathroom near all my classes. I can’t do that anymore.” Goodwin is referring to last school year, when at times, all three bathrooms were open. “I don’t understand why they can’t have them all open, that would make it so much better,” Goodwin continues.
This is a sentiment echoed by many other male Atherton students. Senior Otto Selbig reflects upon his first three years at Atherton.
“My first few years were a lot better because we had all three open and I could go any time throughout the day,” he continues by saying, “It’s not a huge deal but it’s still annoying because I have to wait in line whenever I want to use the bathroom. It’s just annoying, and something that we could probably fix pretty easily.”
Another issue that is caused by this problem is that students are missing valuable class time by having to go to the bathroom, and with only one open, walking to it can take a while. To test this idea, I decided to start a timer when I went to the bathroom in each of my classes.
That small amount of time can add up, and can also cause students to miss vital concepts and ideas that were being taught in class while they were out.
Orchestra teacher Nelson Dougherty says, “Every day I have so many people that have to go to the bathroom that I have to make a list! I have at least 5 people ask me to go to the bathroom every day, and it really takes away class time. In Orchestra, it tends to help if everyone is there.”
The reason for this is likely because the walk down to the orchestra room is lengthy and the concourse bathroom is nearly always closed. This is problematic when students have to use the bathroom during class, because instead of just going to the concourse bathrooms, they have to walk all the way up to the library.
With that being said, there are certain times when the concourse bathroom is open, but these times are few and far between and are seemingly random. This leaves students questioning why it’s open at times and closed at others.
Unfortunately, high schools have seen increased instances of violence and usage of drugs both in bathrooms and in general. There have been more and more suspensions due to these instances. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, almost half of the schools in America have seen an increase in fights in recent years.
“It’s a combination of the pandemic, a lack of trust in our institutions, particularly law enforcement, the presence of guns, [and] the toxic, divisive, contentious times we live in. They’re all interacting together,” says James Densley, a professor of Criminal Justice at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota, in an interview with Education Week, a national education magazine.
Unfortunately, a lot of these incidents take place in the bathrooms, likely because it is a somewhat private area, but still open to all students. The Atherton administration has attempted to counteract this by placing security guards and assistant principals inside the bathrooms themselves, and it has largely been successful. But the issue is that there aren’t enough people to have someone inside of every single bathroom.
Placing these people inside of the bathrooms is also an attempt to counteract another issue: drug use. Vaping especially is most common, and there have been several instances each week where people are caught vaping in bathrooms. Vaping was even more common before these administrators started standing in the bathrooms, but they have been able to somewhat effectively counteract those issues.
There are several issues that are preventing Atherton from keeping all of their bathrooms open, and rightfully so, but technically Atherton is in violation of the Kentucky Building Code (KBC). The KBC is based on the International Building Code (IBC), and chapter 29 of the IBC states that in educational buildings, there must be 1 toilet per gender per 50 students. In terms of urinals, which is applicable to males, the IBC references the International Plumbing Code (IPC), and section 424.2 of the IPC states that urinals cannot be substituted for more than 67% of toilets.
Essentially, what this means is that each gender needs 1 toilet per 50 students, and in male restrooms, only two thirds of the toilets can be urinals.
As of right now, there are about 1,500 students at Atherton High School, and about 47% are males, which is about 700 students. As of right now, in the one bathroom that is open, there are three toilets and 6 urinals, which would only cover 450 students. It is also exactly on the 67% urinal-toilet cutoff. That means that there are not enough toilets as required by KBC.
If Atherton were to open another one of the two bathrooms on campus, it would easily meet the requirements, and also be much more convenient for students. It would likely cause less waiting time, more class time, and overall less stress for students.
