By Cooper Gregg/Editor

     Whether it’s rules about passes and when students are allowed to go to the bathroom or new legislation pertaining to transgender students’ bathroom use, school bathrooms have previously fallen under heavy controversy.

     Looking more specifically here at the high school, a different problem arises: bathroom closures during lunch periods.

     When a school already only contains two bathrooms per gender, any sort of closure becomes major. While closures are inevitable as things break and messes happen, consistent closures are a different story all together.

     Having the lower restrooms closed every day during lunches is equivalent to not having lower restrooms at all for periods which make up roughly a third of the day. This fact on its own is a rough statistic, but when you look at the actual numbers, things only get worse

     The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAMPO) publishes the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) among other codes and resources by working “in concert with government and industry to implement comprehensive plumbing and mechanical systems around the world,” as per their website.

     Table 422.1 located on pages 38 through 42 of the 2024 UPC gives requirements on minimum plumbing facilities per the number of people occupying the building.

     Located on page 39, there are the minimums for the high school as shown in the row for type of occupancy E which is described as “Educational occupancy- private or public school.”

     Starting with the male statistics, according to the Institute of Education Sciences’s (IES) National Center for Education Statistics, there were 873 male students enrolled in the 2023-2024 school year. For males the UPC requires one water closet (flush toilet) per 50 males. 

     Rounding down to 850 male students, according to the UPC’s minimum requirements, Stow needs 17 water closets for male students to adhere to code. There is an additional requirement for males, that being one urinal per 100 male students. Along with this, every urinal above the required amount, which Stow does do, allows for one less required water closet as long as two thirds of the original requirement are still present. This bumps this required number down to roughly 11 rounding down slightly.

     Looking at the reality of the situation, there are two in the upper restroom and three in the lower, adding to a total of five, which on its own is a little under half of the requirement. 

     When accounting for the lower restrooms daily closure, there are only the two upper water closets remaining, which is a measly 18.18 percent of the minimum amount. 

     The UPC requires slightly more water closets for female students, with one per 40 females. According to the IES, Stow had 850 female students enrolled in the 2023-2024 school year. This means that the UPC would require a minimum of 21 (rounded down) water closets for females. 

     In total, the two girls restrooms have 13 water closets, with eight of those being located in the lower restroom. With both bathrooms open, the girls have it slightly better, as their total is roughly 62 percent of the UPC minimum.

     With five water closets in the upstairs female bathroom, the girls statistics are only marginally better with 23.81 percent of the minimum being fulfilled during lunch periods when these upper restrooms are the only option.

     One simple change that could be made to aid in padding these statistics a small amount is by closing the upper restrooms during lunch and instead keeping the lower bathrooms open. These statistics are still low and far beneath the minimums; however, this small change does help a bit with the boys percent during lunches going from 18.18 to 27.27 and the girls from 23.81 to 38.1. 

     It is more than likely that these codes do not apply to high school legally as the building was made far before this more recent code was put in place, and buildings typically are exempt to the codes that were around at the time. Regardless of it being a legal issue or not, it starts to become an issue of safety as we fall so far below what is now considered the minimums, as these codes “are rules that provide for safe and civilized living” according to the IAPMO website. *

     As of at least 2012, the UPC has had the same minimum requirements for schools when it comes to bathroom facilities. Even if the school isn’t breaking any rules, it is still cause for concern that Stow’s restroom count is so far below today’s accepted minimums.

     When speaking with administration about the school restrooms, assistant principal Jayson Yeagley stated that he believes new policy has helped cut down on unsavory activity taking place in the bathrooms.

     “We’ve assigned teachers and various staff members to be outside of the restroom to make sure that they are first on post. If anything’s odd or they see trends or they smell something or hear something, they say something,” Yeagley said.

     According to Yeagley the reasoning for closing the lower restrooms during lunches is because of a lack of “human capital.”

     “Staff were taking their lunches, and we weren’t able to consistently cover it during lunch, and it only made sense to close that just because we couldn’t be consistent with the way that we were applying these adjustments,” Yeagley said.

     Yeagley firmly believes, while not totally ideal, that these changes implemented have been successful in their intended goals.

     “The adjustments we’ve made, obviously, have been a little bit of an inconvenience for students, [and] for staff, but the data shows it is helping in a lot of important ways,” Yeagley said.

     When discussing the aforementioned statistics with Yeagley, he was unable to share any actual numbers or statistics other than his statement that, “[the data] is definitely trending in a better way.”

     Not only do these closures conflict with international, universal code, but also with the schools own internal systems.

     The colored hallways each have their own distinct colored pass which is in an effort to stop students from wandering the school by keeping them confined to their own colored hallway matching the pass being carried. 

     This system in itself is very intelligent. It allows for easy monitoring of those who are not where they should be due to the passes being the wrong color; however, this system completely falls apart when you are required to leave your floor to use the restroom. 

     During periods where the lower restrooms are closed, students from the two lower hallways have to go up to the second floor to use the upper restrooms, which means they are bringing different colored passes into the different colored upper hallways.

     With all four colored passes converging in one restroom, as well as the chaos of lunches, the monitoring power of this pass system is completely lost.

     High school officials are potentially compromising safety by lowering the already lower than minimum amounts of bathroom facilities as well as sabotaging its own hall pass system, all to solve an issue that can just as easily be fixed by placing a staff member outside of the restroom.

     School officials need to look at their priorities and decide what they believe to be a bigger issue–having to find an additional staff member/members for three periods of the day, or sitting more than halfway below what is seen as the minimum requirements for restrooms for a major portion of the school day. 

Editorial

By Jenny Ostlund

In modern times, it is impossible to make it through the day without using some form of technology, causing it to become a lifeline as well as a burden for many people. As technology continues to advance and create more reliance on it, the debate on its impact on mental health becomes louder.

According to a study from The National Library of Medicine, “Current research suggests that it may not be the technology use itself, but rather how actively or passively users engage with technology, that facilitates or hinders nonverbal decoding skill.”

With this in mind, social media provides access to multiple tools, which has a positive impact on society and users that choose to use these tools.

These tools include but aren’t limited to self-help apps, online therapy and much more. With access to these tools, people are more connected to helpful resources that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to without technology in their grasp.

According to the American Psychological Association, “Digital mental health tools that utilize evidence-based interventions can be particularly useful at providing mental health education.”

On the flip side, people’s use of technology or how others use technology against a person can be detrimental to their wellbeing.

According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, 30% of teens have experienced cyberbullying at some point in their lives, which lowers self esteem and overall well being.

In short, technology is a powerful tool that opens up avenues for people to seek help or connections as well as avenues that worsen a person’s overall mental health. It is up to social media users to do their best to make a positive impact with their social media impact to lessen any strength the bad side of social media has.

     On average college students spend roughly $26,027 per year. This is for students who live on campus in a public 4-year-instate college. Additionally, out-of -state students pay on average $27,027 per year. If these numbers get put all together of the 4 year course of a degree it will come out to about $108,364. 

      College should not be free, but it should be affordable for students based on the federal minimum wage. This is because minimum wage is not really minimum, it is just to “survive.” Making $10.10 an hour is not enough to pay for college. 

     Many students who have a passion for education and who want to get an education, can not because they are not financially stable enough to pay thousands of dollars every year. 

      Furthermore, colleges should be more affordable because there would be higher salaries and better futures. When lowering costs of colleges and universities it will persuade people to go and get their degrees which will allow them to make more money. 

     Because of the way student loans are set up today, if students decide to go to college after they graduate, they may be thousands of dollars in debt. This could be harmful to them because they will be too busy paying off their debt instead of investing and focusing on their careers. 

    Halah Anwaar, sophomore, said, “I think they should be free for those who cannot afford it at all, so they don’t have to work 40 hours a week for their job. I think they should be free for local community colleges, but if it’s out of state colleges should be affordable for the majority of people.” 

     Riya Bhattarai, sophomore, said, “I think colleges should be more affordable than what it is right now because right now it’s literally ridiculous, it’s so expensive where it’s to the point students have to work more than they study.” 

     Paying off debt can hinder peoples lives after college, imposing numerous problems.

     Sophomore Claire Green said, “I think it’s unfair that students have to live their entire lives paying off college debt, and I’m not saying it should be free completely because of needing to pay for things like school maintenance and professors. I think it should be more affordable than it is now.” 

     College is not the only path after high school, many degrees do not require a degree, resulting in less debt.

     “I think college should be much more affordable than it is, in college for all model would be great but I also think the idea of everybody having to go to college is one of the worst things that has happened in the last couple generations,” History teacher Colin Martua explained. “There are a lot of jobs that don’t require a college degree, a lot of trades we don’t have enough people to fill those types of jobs, and they’re well paying jobs, so I think every high schooler in the nation thinks that they will have to go to college is ultimately just putting them in a lot of debt.”

     In many cases, the cost of tuition being so high does not make sense when comparing the learning to the future career.

     “It’s an absolute crime that college tuition is that high, there’s no reason why a text book for a course should be $300,” Martua said. “I think that has to do with area model of capitalism and what we choose to put our money towards and what we choose not too, I think that there are people around the country that are decision makers that decided not to invest in education at a college level, at a high school level, at every level, there is the money to reduce that cost it’s just the matter where we send the money.” 

      Many people ask me if colleges are free and or affordable how would we pay the professors and get a good university. The question is how are other country’s doing it? My home country, Iraq, has free colleges, and we have a lot of educated people, such as doctors, engineers, lawyers and business men/woman.

Now I am not saying college should be completely free in the United States because there are a lot of differences between the United States and Iraq but college should be affordable. Since the United States has one of the best education systems in the world, education should be easily accessible.

       As the prices go up for college tuition it makes higher education seemingly unattainable. Although by making college more affordable it would drive economical growth and it will encourage people to go get an education. As the prices of college tuition goes up, many people will decide not to go to college 

     

According to letterstopresident.org it states, “Every year more students drop out of college for many different reasons, and a major reason is because of the cost.” By lowering the cost of student tuition it will help students continue their education and get their degrees. 

    A country with a population that is educated is excellent because it supports a civil society and political stability.

      College in the United States should be affordable because it will help the economy, help students financially and increase the education rate.