I don't know about you, but back in high school, the girls' bathroom was a safe haven of sorts. It's where we congregated in between class to re-apply our lip gloss, gossip about Kyle from home room, and go to the bathroom real quick before the bell for next period rang. But for female students at Beardstown Junior/Senior High School in central Illinois, the girls' bathroom has become a place of embarrassment and apprehension. That's because the school recently decided to remove the doors on its bathroom stalls. (Yes, you read that right.)
This wasn't the result of any renovation snafu -- it happened in response to a message left on a stall door that threatened a school shooting.
That's right — one message, on one door, from one student resulted in the removal of every bathroom stall door in the girls' bathroom, which has effectively punished hundreds of kids who had nothing to do with it.
“You have to understand when kids have a place to spend time, whether it’s a minute or five minutes sometimes things happen whether it’s good, bad or otherwise," Beardstown School District Superintendent Ron Gilbert told WICS/WRSP. "It has helped limit some of the things that were taking place."
Students were stunned when they showed up to school and found the stall doors removed, and have since resorted to creative measures for privacy.
Many have brought in blankets from home to hang at the entrance of stall doors, creating makeshift curtains to shield them while they go to the bathroom. They're also reportedly leaving their shoes outside the stall to clearly indicate when someone's inside.
(Is your head spinning yet? 'Cause mine is.)
Needless to say, many students have raised concerns about the drastic measure, and the school has made allowances for students to access the private bathroom inside the nurse's office when necessary. (But jeez, can you just imagine the line that must form outside that thing in between periods?)
Removing bathroom stall doors wasn't the only precautionary measure the school's taken so far.
Since the threat was reported, both senior and junior high students are only allowed to enter and exit the school through one door, and officials have been brought on site to conduct random searches that include checking students with a security wand at after-school events.
But if you're still left scratching your head over why in the world they'd remove the bathroom doors of young girls, I'm right there with you.
For one thing, there are still plenty of places to scrawl threatening messages, if someone wants to -- on the walls, the floors ... literally anywhere.
Taking the doors off a bathroom stall isn't exactly going to stop someone from making threats or defacing school property.
But here's the thing I really can't wrap my mind around: A school shooting threat is alarming and serious, and needs to be treated with a great deal of sensitivity. Bring in school psychologists or safety experts to give a talk about the seriousness of threats and the hurt they pose to others. Offer students a place to vent if they feel they need someone to talk to, or have a suspicion about a classmate.
But robbing hundreds of students of privacy while they're trying to go to the bathroom? It's not just cruel; it does nothing to solve the actual issue at hand.
"Many students are stimulated to make threats that are pranks or expressions of anger with no serious intent to carry them out," noted Dewey Cornell, an expert on school violence at the University of Virginia, when talking to NPR last year. Mock threats are especially common following other shootings, Cornell explained, which was why so many threats arose following the Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Understandably, the story is sweeping the Internet and raising eyebrows; and yet, this isn't the first time a school has resorted to such measures.
St. Mary's College in Wallasey, England made headlines in January 2018 for removing its bathroom privacy wall — but again, only in the girls' bathroom. In that case, the decision was part of a measure to prevent bullying, skipping class, and smoking in the stalls. The individual stalls still had doors on them.
Then in April 2018, Broadneck High School in Maryland came under fire for removing the doors to some of the bathrooms in an effort to prevent smoking, juuling, and vaping, which were becoming an increasing problem.
Administrators at Beardstown Junior/Senior High School say they're open to hearing feedback from parents (and I'm willing to bet they've got PLENTY).
But if the feedback of people across social media is any indication, they should put those stall doors back on ASAP.
"Then all administration and staff should be forced to use those same bathrooms and see how they like being on display," wrote one man on Facebook.
"I feel for those who have to use them," wrote another user. "I probably would find another school."
Others noted that the story feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
"They probably should have consulted with legal council prior to doing this," said another user. "They will get eaten alive in court."
Time will tell if that happens, but for now, I sure feel for the students at Beardstown High. My former teenage self wouldn't have been able to deal with a predicament like that. But when we're talking about a high school bathroom in America, it's mind-boggling that it would ever even have to.
