While not the first time students’ and teachers’ opinions differ on an issue, it is one of the first times that students’ opinions remained divided on a matter. A vast majority of Legacy’s staff will tell you students loitering in the school restroom must be stopped, but students have varying perspectives, mostly because a portion of them are the loiterers. The bottom line remains: permissible, more sanitary gathering places exist for students to chit-chat.
High schools across the U.S., ranging from Missouri to Colorado to now Legacy in Texas experience the same problem, and the issue itself is not that students want to rendezvous, it’s that they avoid class to do it. Chronic absence of Texas students already makes it a struggle for schools to manage attendance, and when students leave class under the guise of taking a restroom break just to go hang out with their friends, it not only leaves the rest of the class unable to visit the facilities, but leaves the perpetrator missing valuable instruction. On average, students will skip 45 minutes to an hour at a time two to three times a week. That’s 4,740 minutes of missed classes. Crucial learning goes to waste because students choose a bacteria-rampant high school restroom as their stamping ground.
Make no mistake, the effort of Legacy custodial staff should not be taken lightly. The school shines like new each morning, and the halls look no older than freshly built. However, school restrooms contain millions of germs per square inch, including bacteria and viruses. Not to mention, students put minimal effort into maintaining their quality. The custodians are not miracle workers, they cannot scrub every inch of every restroom, and that’s never been an expectation. The expectation is for 14 to 18-year-olds to be mature enough to do their business without making a giant mess, and it goes unmet. So, when sociable students pick a germ-infected floor to sit on while they gibber-gabber, sanitary concerns arise. Are microscopic poop particles forever stuck to your clothes worth the latest gossip? These questions should answer themselves.
Socialization is, unarguably, vital for a child’s development, and high school serves as prime time to explore friendships and social circles. Mingling, pal’ing around, whatever you want to call it, it’s important. Health professionals alike agree that academic success heavily depends on how well students can interact with others. Tittle-tattling has a time and place and during class time in the school restrooms is not it.
There’s no perfect solution to bathroom loiterers, but this plight is not without alternatives. If socializing is the priority, the library is a great place to convene. However, if it’s class time being interfered with, then stricter regulations on bathroom visits and hall monitoring should assume priority. Students have to accept that there is a give and take, and when they give up their class time for idle prattling, they must be willing to take the consequences that come with their rule violations.
