The bathroom policy at Ipswich High School has made mixed opinions throughout the students and staff. Students see the policy as an issue to their class time, and staff see it as a solution to the major problem of vaping and crowding. 

The bathroom policy was put in effect this new school year of 2025. The policy consists of locking the upstairs bathrooms between passing time of classes and four minutes after classes start. And with additional monitoring of  downstairs bathroom with staff including the same times applied. 

There are many rumors as to why the bathroom policy was put into place, so we decided to investigate the actual cause. We hear from Mrs. Smith stating that the policy was established to stop the large congregating of students in the bathroom and the vaping that occurs during that time. When asked how she feels about the policy, she says, “It’s good they are doing something because it’s clear that congregating in the bathroom is a huge problem.” She believes that the crowding in the bathroom is unnecessary and not needed. Upstairs teacher Mrs Barclay talked about how the policy gave less back and forth between the bathrooms and in class in the beginning of each period. She agrees with Mrs. Smith’s statement about the problems of crowding in the bathroom, and how because of the new policy there’s definitely less of it now. Staff see the policy as a positive impact to the schools community helping with our major problems of vaping and congregating.

The policy has hopes to take down the big period of time that most kids choose to vape, which is when the bathrooms are now locked. Teachers say they still hear of kids in the stalls together, but it has increasingly gone down. 

Differently, students view the policy as annoying and unnecessary. One student says, “It makes me miss class time when I have to go during class instead of in passing time.” Having to wait the four minutes while the bathrooms are locked makes students get up at the start of class to go to the bathroom. Certain teachers have to wait for those students to come back in order to start their lessons. Other times students miss teaching lessons because they need to use the restroom and must wait till they are unlocked. One issue is sometimes the upstairs bathrooms remain locked, making students have to travel to other pods to use the bathroom. This can lead to conflicts and students getting in trouble with the office for traveling to other pods. However, with these conflicts students have learned to maneuver around the policy and adapt to the changes. One student states that they wait for the right moment in class to use the restroom after a lecture is given. While there has been a negative thinking about the policy from the students perspective, they have been learning how to carry on with the policy and make do. 

Although there are differences in opinions throughout the staff and students about this new policy, our school has adapted very well to the changes. Staff have less to worry about where their students are before class, while students use their time management skills to find the necessary times to use the restrooms. Many changes have occurred throughout our school, but our community here always finds ways to make do with the change and create new opportunities to use them in beneficial ways.