Should DMV public schools remove student bathrooms entirely?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Spreading the toilets around the school would decrease that congestion. My work place has one in the main customer service area and there are always zero lines since everyone is doing their business and just go when they see it’s empty. There isn’t a need for queuing, it’s a very elegant solution.

Sounds very expensive to retrofit current buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Spreading the toilets around the school would decrease that congestion. My work place has one in the main customer service area and there are always zero lines since everyone is doing their business and just go when they see it’s empty. There isn’t a need for queuing, it’s a very elegant solution.

Sounds very expensive to retrofit current buildings.

Not to mention spreading out potential plumbing problems. and now you need 20 sinks for 20 toilets, rather than 10 sinks.Office buildings usually get major renovations every 20 years, but schools could go 40-50 years before EOL.

So teachers wants to be a bathroom attendant; they will be accused of assault or harassment and their lives will be ruined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Washington Post did a series on MCPS routinely locking students out of the school bathrooms for the entire school day, as an effective method for preventing bathroom vandalism.

The ongoing problem is discussed in this thread: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/585/1186432.page#29359515

Other threads discuss similar issues and methods in other DMV school systems.

I have to wonder if an effective way to address (and stop) the continuing vandalism of our public schools’ bathrooms would be to remove the bathrooms from schools entirely?

WTF?!

[Anonymous]

That is cruelty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Spreading the toilets around the school would decrease that congestion. My work place has one in the main customer service area and there are always zero lines since everyone is doing their business and just go when they see it’s empty. There isn’t a need for queuing, it’s a very elegant solution.

Sounds very expensive to retrofit current buildings.

It is expensive, and they should do it and cut down basically every optional expense in order to do it. And say “No one is having after school clubs or late busses or a homecoming dance this year (or whatever) because you ass clowns can’t behave in the restrooms and now we have to spend millions to completely remodel all the plumbing for safety purposes.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New schools are building bathrooms without doors and just doors on stalls. So there is nowhere expect the stall to lock. Our ES has these.

I did not have stalls doors in my bathrooms years ago. Too many sex acts and drug use going on to allow it. I'm pretty sure my lifelong issues with constipation started from this.

I am so sorry. Where (geographically) was that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Spreading the toilets around the school would decrease that congestion. My work place has one in the main customer service area and there are always zero lines since everyone is doing their business and just go when they see it’s empty. There isn’t a need for queuing, it’s a very elegant solution.

Sounds very expensive to retrofit current buildings.

It is expensive, and they should do it and cut down basically every optional expense in order to do it. And say “No one is having after school clubs or late busses or a homecoming dance this year (or whatever) because you ass clowns can’t behave in the restrooms and now we have to spend millions to completely remodel all the plumbing for safety purposes.”

THIS. Plus - now hear me out - what if we don’t overcrowd middle and high schools to the point of creating massive crowd control problems??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Spreading the toilets around the school would decrease that congestion. My work place has one in the main customer service area and there are always zero lines since everyone is doing their business and just go when they see it’s empty. There isn’t a need for queuing, it’s a very elegant solution.

Sounds very expensive to retrofit current buildings.

It is expensive, and they should do it and cut down basically every optional expense in order to do it. And say “No one is having after school clubs or late busses or a homecoming dance this year (or whatever) because you ass clowns can’t behave in the restrooms and now we have to spend millions to completely remodel all the plumbing for safety purposes.”

THIS. Plus - now hear me out - what if we don’t overcrowd middle and high schools to the point of creating massive crowd control problems??

That would require raising capital to build new schools at a faster rate, which means new taxes.

[Anonymous]

This is another symptom that American kids are NOT okay. This is not a problem in European schools, or in Asia or anywhere. Why are kids destroying the bathrooms in schools? I would start there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is another symptom that American kids are NOT okay. This is not a problem in European schools, or in Asia or anywhere. Why are kids destroying the bathrooms in schools? I would start there.

I have an email from Dr. Brabrand, the Superintendent of FCPS in 2021-22 when the schools reopened; the email addresses destroyed bathrooms in the county. The reason?:

TikTok.

Brabrand had the balls to state it in the email: TikTok hosted a “challenge” to destroy bathrooms and school kids across the USA responded to the TikTok. A friend who teaches in a Title I in Connecticut told their school had to close entirely for 3 days as a result of the TikTok challenge.

Obviously TikTok is not the only reason alone kids destroy public school bathrooms.

But as a PP pointed out: there is a mental health crisis going on with our youth right now, and Social media is a major driver of that crisis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is another symptom that American kids are NOT okay. This is not a problem in European schools, or in Asia or anywhere. Why are kids destroying the bathrooms in schools? I would start there.

Well in a lot of Asian countries specifically, kids are required to help clean their schools as part of their school day. Nobody here would stand for a 30 minute shift of their kids mopping tile and cleaning toilets though unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is another symptom that American kids are NOT okay. This is not a problem in European schools, or in Asia or anywhere. Why are kids destroying the bathrooms in schools? I would start there.

European and Asian schools kick kids out, have remedial schools, do not have the demographic and diversity concerns that we have here. Restorative justice has shown that it doesn't work. But the old way of disproportionally disciplining black and brown kids for the same offenses and white kids getting off didn't work either.

[Anonymous]

This is depressing why the hell can’t kids just use the bathroom in peace it was not like this when I was in high school and I only graduated 16 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is depressing why the hell can’t kids just use the bathroom in peace it was not like this when I was in high school and I only graduated 16 years ago.

We stopped punishing the troublemakers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't it be better to remove the problematic students instead?

+1. The kids who are vandalizing bathrooms and fighting in middle and high school are the same kids who mostly come to school because their parents don't want to end up in court. They spend most of the day wandering the halls, making messes, and causing trouble. Put everything on Schoology and send them home with their laptops to learn. They're old enough to stay home alone and they have the tech skills to navigate the courses if they're inclined.

I agree with sending them home, but finding the root causes of kids’ behavior would be the best route. They can’t learn if they have unsolved trauma. They need to get the feelings and facts out in a civilized manner with a professional and a parent.
Public secondary schools look more like a penitentiary than an educational facility. This needs to change.