“May I go to the bathroom?” 

“You mean can you walk half a mile and miss half of the class..? Sure. Take a pass.”

If bathrooms are out of order, we need to do something to fix them because students need to pee. Having half of the bathrooms unavailable (or any at all) is not good for students or staff—seeing as some staff choose to use the student bathrooms because they are closer to their classes.

“Holding your urine for extremely long periods can also cause urinary tract infections due to bacteria build-up. In addition, it can increase your risk of kidney disease and in rare cases even risk your bladder bursting—a condition that can be deadly.” 

Given that students are also prohibited from leaving class in the first and last ten minutes of class, closing half of the bathrooms in the school can lead to disaster.  Holding excretions in is unhealthy for anyone, but if a student tries to hold it in during the last ten minutes of class and cannot find an open bathroom during the transition time, the risk for urinary tract infections (UTI) and other illnesses increases.

Closing the bathrooms in one half of the school also keeps kids out of class longer. If they have to walk halfway around the school to get to the bathroom, it becomes increasingly difficult to spend the maximum amount of time in class.

We do understand that things break. And safety in the bathrooms is important. But we ask that Montgomery County Public Schools work harder to repair bathrooms quickly given that this is a basic human need. And if the issue is students skipping class or misbehaving in bathrooms, please consider stationing security outside rather than closing them altogether.