The school made the decision after receiving complaints of „vaping, skipping class, fighting” in the bathrooms
NEED TO KNOW
- An Illinois high school removed some exterior bathroom doors before the start of school to curb unwanted student behavior
- Since returning to class, a high school junior started a petition to have the doors put back
- Administrators say that there has already been a notable difference in the number of restroom complaints filed
As a new school year kicks off, students at an Illinois high school realized that some of the exterior bathroom doors had been removed.
Administrators made the decision in response to complaints about problematic activities in school restrooms, but some students are pushing back, according to CBS News and CBS affiliate WNCT.
Since returning to class, junior Laila Rosenthal started a petition on Change.org to motivate her school, Oak Park and River Forest High School, to put the doors back up.
As of Thursday, Aug. 28, more than 400 people have signed it — not far from the teen’s goal of 500 signatures.
“Bathrooms should be a place where students and staff can have a moment of privacy and security,” she wrote in the petition. “Oak Park River Forest High School’s decision to remove bathroom doors disregards these basic needs and inadvertently contributes to an atmosphere of anxiety and distress among students.”
For school administrators, the move was a necessary one: Last year, they received multiple complaints about activities like vaping and unwanted congregating, according to CBS News and WNCT.
“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,” the school said in a statement to both outlets.
“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 school continued.
Oak Park and River Forest High School said that exterior doors were taken off restrooms only when there would be no straight line of sight into the location of stalls and urinals. No 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 said.
By the third week of school, campus safety already reported fewer issues with students hanging out in bathrooms, both outlets reported.
The school district and Rosenthal did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.
Another junior, Gia Fredrisdorf, told CBS News that she was also concerned about the lack of exterior bathroom doors. “If you’re in the bathroom, you have to hide in the bathroom from like a school shooter or something,” she said. „If there’s no doors in the bathroom, that’s another risk.”
Donovan Lee, a student at Oak Park and River Forest High School, said that he understood why leadership made the move. “It definitely makes a huge difference,” he told the outlet. „I haven’t seen too many people come in to like vape or do anything like that.”
Rosenthal plans to take her petition to school administrators once she has more signatures, the outlets reported.
