Many people have experienced the disheartening event of going to use the bathroom, tugging at the door and then realizing they can’t get in because it’s locked.

As most have come to learn the U hall, F hall and a few other bathrooms around campus have been locked throughout the day.

While it is hard to say exactly what is been going on in each bathrooms there are a few theories.

Using the school bathrooms as a meeting place to smoke, or do drugs, or graffiti, or just get out of class with friends is not uncommon at Carlmont.

“Sometimes when I am walking to AP bio I can smell weed coming from the bathroom hallway,” said junior Kiana Ghazouli.

Part of the problem is that some students use the bathroom as a party room for friends and drugs and other prohibited activities. But this really causes a problem for the people who want to use the bathroom for its intended purpose.

So how does the administration respond?

Well evidently they think that the best way to stop illegal activities in bathrooms is to close them down.

Thus the students who actually need to use the bathrooms are forced to either run to an open bathroom in the short amount of time they are allotted for such breaks, walk around school antsy with the I-need-to-pee face, or hold it in till they get home.

Therefore some students are angry all day because they are unable to let a natural process happen, due to the actions of a small minority of the students at Carlmont.

However, the administration does realize that closing the bathrooms is both effective and disruptive to students.

So why are all students being punished for the crimes of a few?

“Bathrooms can be closed for a variety of issues – anywhere from illegal activity taking place to plumbing and janitorial situations. I do not know specifically why they were closed recently,” stated Instructional Vice Principal Robert Fishtrom.

But there are so many things that this could cause the bathrooms to be closed, and while closing the bathrooms could help to solve the problems they are simply forcing everyone to suffer, however it’s also stopping the bathrooms from being used incorrectly.

Personally, I think poop coming back up and out of toilets is a lot worse for bathrooms than drugs. It’s my belief that it’s easier to “go” in a smelly bathroom then in ones covered in other peoples “stuff.”

Nevertheless, if the problem isn’t due to janitorial issues, which it most likely isn’t because then we would all literally be able to smell the problem, then it has to be that students continue to use the bathrooms for prohibited activities.

So the best way to solve the problem would be if students just used the bathroom for its intended purpose and do any of these other activities off school grounds so that they do not force the rest of us to suffer from their YOLO mentality.