Eight student bathrooms were sporadically closed for multiple weeks during March in the 20’s, 30’s, and STEAM buildings.

“[The 20’s and 30’s bathrooms] were closed intermittently for some time because the damages from the rain were pretty big,” principal Sukanya Goswami said. 

Goswami said the plumbing in the 20’s and 30’s buildings was broken due to the recent atmospheric river.

While four out of six of the bathrooms have now reopened, two remain closed for other reasons.

The downstairs floor of the 30’s building has two bathrooms and only two classrooms, and yet according to Goswami, a lot of graffiti has been found.

“Generally, if there is any kind of graffiti it will be cleaned up by the custodians by the end of the day,” Goswami said.

While the school claims to have a zero tolerance policy on graffiti, there are drawings still etched in the bathroom stalls.

“I think it is completely valid for the admin to remove racially motivated graffiti. But in terms of graffiti in general, I feel like it’s not a reason to close a perfectly functional bathroom, especially when other bathrooms are also closed at the time,” sophomore Friedie Schickedanz said.

Goswami said that the two downstairs bathrooms will remain closed for the time being.

While bathrooms have been closed due to graffiti and plumbing damage, there are two bathroom closures that remain unexplained.

The boys and girls bathrooms on the third floor of the STEAM building were closed for a month, only opening again during the week of March 13.

“There have been signs on the bathroom that say ‘Out of Service’, but I don’t believe it,” junior Sutton Collins said.

Goswami said that usually the administration closes down bathrooms to make sure they are running smoothly. A specific reason for the closure of the third floor bathroom has not been announced.

Some students speculate that the reason that the third floor bathrooms were closed was because of vaping.

“I heard that the third floor bathroom is closed for vaping. Apparently [administration] can’t run fast enough to get to the top floor,” sophomore Yotam Kariv said.

Collins said she also has concerns about the real reason for the bathroom closure.

“I think that if the administration is trying to stop students from vaping, it’s a stupid way to do it because they can’t just close bathrooms to solve their problems. It’s just not fair to any of the students,” Collins said.

With the long closures and lack of communication about when the bathrooms would reopen, some students said they grew frustrated.

“The bathroom closures are really annoying. Some teachers are strict about how long you leave the classroom, and when the nearest bathroom is closed, it can take super long to find one that is open,” Collins said.

Goswami understands the students concerns and said the administration is trying to keep the disturbances to a minimum.

“We tried to keep, in every building, at least one bathroom each so the students have a bathroom in their building. We don’t want the closures to be too big of an inconvenience,” Goswami said.