New bathroom rules and procedures went into effect on the fourth of February. This new policy affects everyone. Every teacher has bathroom duty at least 2-3 times a month. If that duty is during lunch, teachers will be allowed to have one lunch to close the bathrooms to eat.
The new procedure is that first, students have to make an e-hall pass. Once the teacher accepts it, students will take their laminated pass and go to the bathroom. There will be a teacher sitting outside of the bathroom at a desk with hooks on each side. When students go to the bathrooms, they will hang their bathroom pass on one of the five hooks and go in.
If the bathroom hooks are full, students must stand in line and wait for an available hook. If students have a paper pass, wrong color bathroom pass, or no pass at all, they will be ineligible to go to the bathroom and will be sent back to class.
This new procedure was put into place because of the increase in inappropriate use of bathroom passes. This was decided by the admin team and Ms. Johnson took the lead on coordinating the overall plan and the schedule for teacher coverage.
“We noticed an increase of negative student behaviors occurring in the bathroom as well as input from multiple students and parents that kids didn’t feel safe going to the bathroom. The combination of information made us believe there was a need to increase the supervision of the bathrooms,” said OHS principal, Dr. Chapman.
“So far I believe it has been positive. Most students are kind and respectful when interacting with the monitors and there has been a decrease in disciplinary situations associated with bathrooms during the school day. I think it will decrease the time spent outside of class. Students are still welcome to access the bathroom when needed, they may just be more aware when they are spending more time there than needed,” explained Chapman.
“Teachers have shared they see fewer issues in the hallway, though they appreciate minimizing the amount of duties they have during their planning time. Students still need to provide some input,” Chapman added.
“By the whole policy, I think it’ll have a couple of effects. As I said, the students who are using the bathroom pass for normal reasons won’t be affected much. But the idea is to kind of make it like a social experience. I think what it’ll do is deter the students who are just using the bathroom passes to just skip being in class. I think it personally won’t prevent that outright, but it will be a deterrent. It’s just meant to make sure that people are using the bathroom passes for the reason they’re intended,” said theatre teacher, Mr. Scofield.
There have been many different views of this new policy from students and teachers since this change has gone into effect. Some are happy about this new procedure, and others are not. Here are some examples.
“I think this change was helpful because the bathroom isn’t as crowded, but it’s still kinda the same because when I go to make an e-hall pass, it says that the bathroom is at full capacity,” said freshman, Fatima Melgar.
“I think this is a positive change. Students are in and out of the bathroom more quickly because they are not in there socializing. I absolutely think it is way safer to have fewer people in the bathrooms at one time. I have duty 3 times a month during my planning period, and I am happy to do it,” said journalism teacher, Ms. Miller.
“Students are now understanding that they can’t just roam around without a pass and that they actually need to come with one,” said math teacher, Ms. Fulton.
“I have mixed feelings. I mostly think it’s for the better because there used to be people who would just stand around when there were actual people who needed to use the bathroom. But, I don’t know why we can’t use paper passes,” said freshman, Jackson Doll.
What are your thoughts on the new bathroom system? Tell us in the comments!
Josh Guzman • Mar 6, 2025 at 10:19 am
I am both neutral, okay, and somewhat feel negative thoughts on this new policy if that makes sense. I am neutral because I don’t even use the bathroom at Osbourn, so I don’t get to really experience it. I am also okay with this policy because it can also decrease the amount of disciplinary students spending their time in the bathroom such as Dr. Chapman said. I also also feel negative towards this policy because if I was a teacher, I would personally not want to sit on a chair for long periods of time getting passes and letting students in just because some people cannot use bathrooms for the intended purpose. Now, I know it doesn’t affect me personally, but I feel as if it is not fair for teachers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great policy and a great idea, but it definitely has its flaws.
Jackson Doll • Mar 6, 2025 at 9:06 am
I don’t really have strong feelings on the policy, but as I said in the article, I think it’s mostly for the better, because some times I would walk into a bathroom and there would be around 20 people just hanging out in there. It’s really annoying when you actually need to use the bathroom.
Shane • Mar 4, 2025 at 2:31 pm
These new policies do not really have an effect on me because I didn’t even use the bathrooms here last year because of how gross they are and I don’t plan on using them anytime soon to be honest. Though I can say I can see some annoyance from some teachers when all they get in response from students is “can you approve my pass.” I also don’t really like the fact that its now an e-hall pass even with the lanyards. It doesn’t really seem necessary and just over-complicates something as simple as using the bathroom. I feel like the new lanyards and bathroom monitors are efficient though.
Emely Luna • Mar 4, 2025 at 11:39 am
I think it works well as more people are getting to class on time.