Imagine this – you’re sitting in 4th period, in the upper 100 building, with your legs crossed under your desk so tightly you can barely move. The focus of the class discussions slowly disappears as you’re now focusing on the painful urges of needing to use the restroom. Now you’re just waiting for the perfect opportunity to ask your teacher to use the restroom, and when you’ve finally gotten your chance, you quickly remove yourself from the desk chair and walk to the closest bathroom. Once you get there your mind is thinking: finally I can use the bathroom! But wait, you’re standing in front of the bathroom door baffled at the site. The door is locked! Yes ladies and gentlemen we now have locked bathroom doors at Sahuaro High School. Now we’re being forced to walk the extra mile to use the bathroom, and this just isn’t right.

I’ve been in this very position as well, and I feel your pain, and so do many other students who have to use the restroom. Many of my classmates have told me that they “just can’t take this anymore,” and that this can “lead to health issues later on.” I too believe that making us use the only unlocked restroom, which is located in the lower 200 building, is unnecessary and outrageous. These locked doors are limiting our freedom to use the restroom, and are causing more problems like long lines, unnecessary waiting, and very upset students who just want to relieve themselves of their discomfort. I couldn’t just sit there and let this problem go on, so I began to accumulate a series of questions that my fellow classmates wanted answers to.

For example one frequently asked question was “what if we have no time to use the other bathroom?” and fortunately, I had the opportunity to interview our Vice Principal, Mr. Lundstrom, who answered this question by stating that there is an “opportunity to go to the nurse.” However, the nurse’s office is an even longer walk and an unnecessary route to take when you could just use one of the closer options that shouldn’t be locked. Another frequently asked question was “why are the doors locked?” Well, due to the “amount of vandalism which caused expensive repairs,” and the “illegal activity taking place in the bathrooms” answered Mr. Lundtrom, certain decisions were made causing the bathroom doors to be on lock down.

This I understand, however not every Sahuaro student is participating in these actions, and shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences. What about those who have disabilities? Or those who have to use the elevator to get around? Can we make some sort of exception for them? So as I began to end the interview I asked my final question that we all want the answer to, “Will the bathrooms eventually be unlocked again?” He answered by asking me, “Did our mirrors come back?,” and if you’ve been coming to this school for more than a year, you know that we have never gotten the mirrors back into our bathrooms. On the other hand, losing the mirrors makes more sense because students were taking too long in the bathrooms, however this is a different situation,  This is the freedom to use the restroom being taken away from us.

How will this problem be resolved? Will we ever get our bathrooms back? Well, according to Mr. Lundstrom, “Not all bathrooms will be unlocked at the same time,” and he also states that “maybe we’ll bring back two for the girls and two for the boys.” Until then we still don’t know how long we’ll have to wait until we can get the bathrooms unlocked, therefore long lines will continue to stretch out into the hallways, students will still need to walk that extra mile to use the restroom, and the amount of upset students will begin to increase as these bathrooms continue to stay locked. How long will they keep us behind locked doors? How long will we need to wait in line just to use the restroom? In other words, just take into consideration the amount of suffering that is actually taking place here at Sahuaro High School. I know you want these bathrooms back, and so do I because we deserve that right of using the bathroom wherever and whenever we want. Don’t take that right away. Just unlock the door!