No restrooms for the weary

It's almost the end of the day, and you're ready to get out of class. Of course, you also have to use the bathroom. Bad. You get your teacher to sign your planbook, of course, and head to the nearest bathroom. Then it hits you - the door, that is. The bathroom, along with all of the other upper-floor bathrooms, is locked.

"I've expected the bathrooms to be open and then run into a door," says junior Alex Lockwood, grinning. "They're usually closed."

Approximately 1000 of Blair's 3200 students face the problem of locked bathrooms after school every day. The school's official policy is to lock bathrooms at the end of the day, but this is often interpreted to mean 2:10 instead of 3:00, leaving students with an eighth period and/or after-school activities out in the cold.

Building Services manager James Brown says that building services staff usually lock bathrooms on upper floors between 2:20 and 2:45. "They're usually pretty torn up by 2:10," he says, citing tagging and abuse.

"Those bathrooms really shouldn't be locked," says junior Davis Glasser. "I tried to talk to Mr. Brown [the Building Services Manager], but it didn't go anywhere."

Brown explains that the early closing of bathrooms was made necessary by a resurgence of gangs and related fights in bathrooms. Only upper floor bathrooms are locked early because first floor bathrooms are easier for security to monitor.

The lack of accessible bathrooms is not a problem for many students who do not stay at school after 2:10, like senior Vincent Wong. "I try to avoid the school bathrooms [in general]," he says. After a pause, he adds, "they stink."

Still, many students find the problem annoying. "It's a pain to have to go all the way down to the first floor to go, especially because I tend to miss the instructions for the class," says junior Naomi Graber.

Brown is aware that the closures are irritating, but says that the step is necessary. "I know it's an inconvenience, especially for magnets," he says, "but it's done for the safety of the kids."

Most students seemed to take the problem in stride. Graber says, "It's annoying, but not really all that bad."

The organizers of Magnet Arts Night mocked the problem in a skit last year that compared it to an emergency situation.

"Attention, all students," said the PA system in the skit, "a Code Yellow emergency has been reported in the building. All bathrooms on the second and third floors are locked."