Recently, Principal Claudia Cooper made the decision to close nearly all the bathrooms in an attempt to try and crack down on fights and vaping.

“We were having a number of students vaping in the bathroom. There were a couple of fights that were in the bathroom that were brought to our attention. So, I made the decision to lock the bathroom up for a week,” Cooper said.

During the time the bathrooms were closed, the E-Hall bathroom had a long line to the bathroom both crowding the bathroom and the hall pass system.

“On average I see like, probably like ten, thirteen,” Michael Cooks (11) said.

Cooper acknowledges that the shutdown of the bathrooms was an inconvenience for students, as only one bathroom was open.

“It was an inconvenience to students who were maybe in a different hallway and had to walk clear over to an E Hall to use the restroom,” Cooper said. “That was a problem within itself, that it was inconvenient for everyone, but I did try to kind of rectify that as quickly as I possibly could.”

Shortly after this week-long trial, the bathrooms were back open. But what did the administration learn from this experience? And did it result in fewer people vaping in the bathrooms?

Students we spoke to said that while it was an inconvenience, it likely helped reduce vaping.

“Since they’re in one bathroom, it’s…less, cause it’s only one bathroom they can (vape) in so they get caught,” Cooks said.

Cooper agreed, saying it made it easier for the administration to catch those responsible.

“We did actually catch a lot more people smoking in the bathroom, obviously, we could pay more attention to those couple of bathrooms that were open, so that did make it easier for us to catch the perpetrators,” she said.

For now, Cooper wants students to report people who are vaping and fighting in the bathrooms using the speak up hotline.

“It’s on the USD, 259, website,” Cooper said. “You go to the search bar at the top, type in ‘speak up’ and you can do an anonymous tip to let us know and maybe help us out in that manner. We have talked about as an admin team, maybe starting to give some rewards to those students who do help us in finding those persons or persons that are vaping in the bathrooms.”