Jake Famiglietti

C-Wing bathroom locked up before the start of school

For Lincoln students looking for the bathroom, finding an open one can be tricky. The on and off closing of several bathrooms in recent years, has led many students to avoid the bathroom entirely, but the administration remains hopeful that it will improve. 

“We all want the same thing,” said Principal Hopkins, who wants to be able to open all the bathrooms for students.

The C-wing and lower D-wing are the only bathrooms open for the whole day. The A-wing bathroom is only open during the lunch period and Lions Block, and the elusive upstairs D wing bathroom is also always closed.

Limited open bathrooms makes it harder for students to find the facilities they need. Students often have to take a long walk to access the bathrooms that are open, and even when they are open, many students don’t feel comfortable using the restroom at all.

“I don’t go in the bathroom because I feel like it’s crowded,” said junior Abbey Marzetta. 

Principal Hopkins cites the vandalism from a couple years ago, before he was even hired, as one of the main reasons why both the A wing and the upstairs D wing bathroom have been closed. A few years ago there was the viral “devious lick” trend, where students would record themselves vandalizing and destroying school property. Although vandalism issues are smaller in scale than a few short years ago, they are still relevant enough to continue being a problem. Whether it be writing on the stalls, walls, and mirrors, vandalism still remains a hurdle in the way of opening up all the bathrooms. 

“Thousands of dollars in damage led to the bathroom being shut down for a long time,” said Principal Hopkins.  “We had to make sure supervision was present at all times to ensure that property was protected.” 

Vaping is also another issue concerning the bathrooms. It’s been brought up several times in meetings across grade levels, and the administration acknowledges vaping as one of the major problems. 

“Vaping is less [of a problem], but it’s still an issue,” added Mr. Hopkins. “We want to make sure a student is comfortable in the bathroom.”

The priority of administration is making sure all students are safe and behaved in the bathroom. In an attempt to reduce misbehavior and improve the safety of students in the bathrooms, teachers are often tasked with monitoring the bathrooms during their duty periods. 

But on the bright side, the student body as a whole is moving in the right direction, as recurring misbehavior in the bathroom has decreased this year. This has opened up the possibility of reopening closed bathrooms. 

According to Mr. Hopkins, a meeting was held discussing the reopening of the A-Wing bathroom during the whole day. This would increase the total number of bathrooms open during the day from two to three. The upstairs bathroom in D wing is also up for consideration, as per Mr. Hopkins. As long as things continue to trend upwards, all the school bathrooms hopefully should eventually be open.