In a bid to solve the issue of students congregating in East’s bathrooms, the administration announced a new sign-in policy Monday.
Under the new policy, in addition to “turnstiling” out of their classes, students must also sign in to the bathrooms. Teachers will be positioned near the entrance to the bathrooms with a sign-in sheet. Only two students will be allowed in each bathroom at any given time.
The administration has been working on creating an effective bathroom policy for the past few years, according to Assistant Principal Mr. Lou Papa. The administration is open to amending the policy based on student concerns, but believes the current policy is a good framework.
“We’ve been talking about [this] on and off since I’ve arrived here…we have issues with vandalism in the bathrooms, we have many complaints from students who just want to use the restroom and they’ll go in there and there’s five, six, seven, eight, twelve, sometimes, students in there,” said Papa. “This is an attempt to address both of those issues.”
In order to develop the policy, Principal Dr. Dennis Perry worked closely with the Student Government Association (SGA), according to Papa. SGA has been working since last year to ensure bathrooms remain open and are not locked in the middle of the day, as they were last year.
“Student Government had concerns about [the policy], but our biggest priority was making sure that the bathrooms remain open,” said SGA President Oliver Adler (‘20). “Dr. Perry made a commitment to us that the bathrooms would remain open before school started.”
Some students have taken issue with the number of students allowed in the bathrooms under the policy, arguing that since the number of stalls in the bathrooms exceed two, more than two students should be allowed to use the bathrooms.
“For…only two people to go in the stalls at once is kind of absurd [be]cause there’s five stalls for a reason,” said Dominique Liataud (‘22), who also expressed concern that those with medical conditions may be negatively impacted by having to wait to use the bathroom, as well.
Papa, however, says this is one of the areas in which the administration is willing to compromise with the student body at a later point.
“It may be something we adjust…this is just a starting point,” said Papa. “It’s like when you’re negotiating, you start at a certain part and…water finds its own level…it’ll find its own level.”
Other students, though, believe the policy may be an effective means of making the bathrooms easier to use for students who tire of navigating crowds to get to the stalls. Yet, some like Shrey Dalwadi (‘20), believe it will not mitigate the issue of students skipping class and congregating somewhere.
“I feel that it’s good in some ways because it’s allowing some limitations…but I feel like where there’s a will there’s a way,” said Shrey Dalwadi (‘20).

What are your thoughts on the new bathroom policy? Comment your opinions below, or submit a letter to the editor in F087 any time during the LBs or after school.