With bathroom closures and the way that bathrooms are treated, students were left feeling uncomfortable using the bathroom. A solution was to open the gender neutral bathrooms in the at large lab, accessible for all students to use.
Media center assistant Nancy Becerra-Balbuena said the new bathrooms have been a substantial addition to Park.
“I think it’s great. I’ve been seeing that it’s been getting better,” Becerra-Balbuena said. “I feel like students are coming in here to actually use the bathroom being accessible and not come in here as a huddle with their friends.”
Principal LaNisha Paddock said, once the construction is over in the cafeteria there will be more gender neutral bathrooms available.
“When construction is over, our cafeteria space will have a bay of gender inclusive bathrooms,” said Paddock . “Students will be able to go into their own stall that will be floor to ceiling private, and it’ll be just like going to the restroom at your home.”
Junior Kellen Haller said he enjoys the modern bathrooms compared to the normal bathrooms.
“I really like the new bathrooms because they’re nice, peaceful and quiet,” said Haller said. “I just feel more comfortable in the private bathrooms and I’m glad they are open for everyone to use.”
Becerra-Balbuena said she is happy with how the students have been treating the new bathrooms compared to the normal bathrooms.
“Now that the bathrooms have been closed I think it helped out with some students respecting these bathrooms a little bit better than normal bathrooms,” Becerra-Balbuena said.
Paddock said they are still trying to make bathrooms more available without too much supervision considering that the bathrooms are closed most of the time
“We are trying to figure out ways to make it more accessible. We’ve talked to library media specialists because we know a lot of times our library media center is not accessible to students or it’s closed,” Paddock said. “We also want it to be a safe place that all students can access, and if it’s unsupervised, that sometimes is hard.”
Haller said the bathrooms feel more accessible for all students to use because they feel private while using
“There is a lot more privacy,” Haller said. “With everything going on in the other bathrooms, it felt like we could have opened them even earlier.”
