Students are protesting against an Illinois high school’s controversial decision to remove exterior bathroom doors to mitigate “inappropriate” behavior, PEOPLE reported. It’s the beginning of a new school year, and Oak Park and River Forest High School students aren’t happy with the lack of privacy that comes with no bathroom doors.
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Students Protest After School Removes Exterior Bathroom Doors Due To “Inappropriate” Behavior
According to CBS News, one student took matters into her own hands after disagreeing with it. “I want to feel safe,” said junior Laila Rosenthal. “And then I feel like a bunch other of my peers — like, I did this for them too.”
Rosenthal launched a petition on Change.org in an effort to bring back doors to their bathrooms. She explained how bathrooms should give students and staff “a moment of privacy and security, be it to freshen up or perhaps take a breath from a hectic school day.”
The junior claimed that the school administration’s decision to remove the doors disregards these needs and “inadvertently contributes to an atmosphere of anxiety and distress among students.”
So far, the petition has reached over 430 signatures and counting. It’s already close to Rosenthal’s goal of 500 signatures.
The school administration sent out statements to news outlets explaining its decision. “The decision to remove the exterior doors of most bathrooms at the school was based on an evidence-based practice in architecture called crime prevention through environmental design or CPTED,” said OPRF.
“One of the most frequent complaints that we received last year from parents, faculty, staff, and students was about inappropriate activities taking place in the bathrooms, such as vaping, skipping class, fighting, and so forth.”
The Student Body’s Varying Opinions
Many students have came up with their own reasons as to why removing doors doesn’t help these issues. “I think that they could have done things like vape detectors or smoke detectors, because those do exist,” said student Gia Fredrisdorf.
The junior also noted how removing doors can become a safety hazard. “If you’re in the bathroom, you have to hide in the bathroom from like a school shooter or something,” continued Fredrisdorf. “If there’s no doors in the bathroom, that’s another risk.”
In the rest of the OPRF’s statement, it continued to defend its reasoning. “The exterior doors were removed only from bathrooms where doing so did not provide a direct line of sight into the area where stalls or urinals are located,” it said.
“None of the stall doors were removed. The bathroom entrances now function similarly to those you see at airports, many schools, and other public places where the bathrooms do not have entrance doors.”
The school administration then mentioned that there have been fewer reports of students crowding the bathrooms now. Furthermore, despite the pushback, there are plenty of students who feel indifferent or agree with the changes.
“It definitely makes a huge difference,” said student Donovan Lee. “I haven’t seen too many people come in to like vape or do anything like that.”