By Chloe Washington

SAN JOSE, CALIF. ⸺ Since the early 2022-2023 school year, Silver Creek High School administrators have been taking away student rights to use the bathroom when need be. All due to the wrongs of a few – impacting the many. 

Over the past few years, using the bathroom on school grounds has been a hassle. Many Silver Creek students, females and males alike, often express the issues they have had with the system. To add to the struggles we had already been dealing with from last year (having over half of our bathrooms being closed for the majority of the day), administrators decided to implement a new “10-5-10” rule.

This entails that students are not to go to the bathroom during the first ten or last ten minutes of class. This rule was originally put in place to maximize student learning but holds unrealistic expectations.

When going to the bathroom a student can take no longer than five minutes or they may risk being marked as “cut” on attendance charts. It is extremely strict to impact a student’s attendance for simply needing to use the restroom.

Angela Ramos, a senior at Silver Creek High, says, “Five-minute bathroom runs are impossible to do.” She explains that a typical trip to the bathroom from her first-period class cannot possibly be made in five minutes. Just walking from her class, in the M-Building, to the nearest bathroom takes about three minutes, using the restroom another three minutes, and walking back an additional three minutes. This new system’s requirements obviously cannot be met by an average student.

It is unfair that all students need to face consequences for the wrongs of a few students. Not all students make good choices and some abuse their privileges, but there are hundreds of other students who haven’t done anything wrong and deserve the right to open and available bathrooms without time restrictions.

Being told to go back to class because you either don’t have a pass or it’s the last/first ten minutes of class is dehumanizing and wrong. Being told you can’t handle your business on your own terms is frustrating. Students should be allowed their own bodily autonomy.

Aside from these rules, we also have a lack of restroom access. I’m sure many Silver Creek students are aware of this issue. Out of about 6 bathrooms on campus, not including locker room bathrooms, usually only 2 of the 6 are always open.

Even with those two bathrooms, custodians choose to clean them during passing periods. A teacher might say, “Why didn’t you go before class?” If a bathroom wasn’t even available to a student during passing period how would they be able to go before class? Why do we have 6 plus bathrooms on campus and only 2 of them are easily accessible?

Not to mention, Silver Creek has about 2.4 thousand students. Bathroom lines are often out the door during breaks and passing periods which makes it hard to even use the bathroom before class starts.

Ramos says, “There will be a line of girls waiting for the bathroom … by the time some of us get to stalls there’s no toilet paper left … conditions of the bathrooms are in horrible shape … doesn’t sit right with me.” SCHS students are not happy with their bathroom policies and something needs to change.