Bathroom Shortage at the Islands

Students and school bathrooms have always had an odd relationship; how is it at Channel Islands High School? 

School bathrooms are often the least favorite area of a school for students and staff alike. It’s an unsanitary place, but an important one nonetheless. So what happens if there aren’t enough bathrooms for all students? 

Many Raiders have complained about the lack of bathrooms around campus and the annoyingly long lines. A few of these complaints in detail include: students located around the PE area having to cross the entire campus due to their teachers not allowing them to use the portables, students taking too much time in the bathroom, and students waiting up to 5 to 15 minutes in line. 

The root to all these problems is, ultimately, the bathroom shortage. With construction going on and safety concerns, only a few bathrooms for thousands of students are open to use. 

When the Isle File asked about how soon more bathrooms would be available, Ms. Ramos, CIHS principal, stated, “I’m trying to work that out, trying to work a schedule out where we can have those bathrooms available. But for safety as well, I can’t have that available during lunch. I don’t have enough staff to monitor and supervise both areas of the campus.” Soon after her response on November 4th, new student bathrooms were opened by MB1 on November 8th. The addition of another bathroom has certainly helped calm down the chaos of getting to a bathroom but with the construction on C building nearing its end, will more bathrooms be accessible? 

Due to the construction on C building, 11 teachers were sent to Oxnard College, each having an average of 3 classes with 30 students. That’s a heavy amount of students to have off campus. Their return means that CI staff will need to figure out a way to accommodate the bathroom demand once more. 

Hopefully, the criticism from students will end well. The health of students comes first and it’s up to the teachers and administrators to think of proper solutions for this unfortunate shortage. Love them or hate them, everyone deserves access to a bathroom.