That feeling when you’re dashing towards the bathroom in the morning. The ultimate race against time with your bladder as the finish line! 

Dashing into the lower commons area of Grandview is a sight of pure horror. 

Lower commons bathrooms are closed in the morning.

“Lower Commons bathrooms are closed in the morning to make sure students go to class. They’re unlocked about 20 to 30 minutes after students are in their first period, ” Head security guard Ty Foster said.

Time spent in the bathroom can diminish the time used to get to class. Contradictingly, criticisms arise from students.

“I don’t like it because I can’t get where I need to be faster as I come in through the lower common doors,” senior Kaylee Donohoe said. 

The closing of the lower commons bathroom in the morning disturbs students’ and impacts their ability to efficiently attend classes.

For many students, it makes it more of a struggle to follow their morning routine at school.

“It’s annoying because I always have to use the bathroom in the morning,” freshman Gabriel Resendz said.

There are not enough security guards to watch all of the bathrooms at the same time, so shutting down the bathrooms can make it more convenient for guards to supervise students.

“We do it in the morning mostly because that was the one [time] that we found the most amount of traffic where students were hanging out,” Foster said. “We also had other students go in the main hallways which are more well-supervised.”

However, there is debate between security and the heads of Grandview regarding the choices made. 

“Responsibilities are kind of challenging when we have all 2700 plus students in the hallway at the same time. It takes every adult to manage, hopefully, you see security and admin out in the mornings to recover everything so it is hard to be everywhere all the time,” Principal Lisa Roberts said.

While closing the lower commons bathroom does serve as an inconvenience to students, there are many other bathrooms around the school that students can choose from.

“We did take into consideration the fact that students would be impacted by it, but it does open up several of the other bathrooms,” Foster said. “The red hallway, the upper bathrooms, and many of the other bathrooms are open in the morning.”

Furthermore, students often try to use the bathroom at a time where they don’t have to miss any part of class, which is in the morning or during passing periods.

“Most of the time when I use the bathroom is in the morning and so when I go, it’s locked,” junior Mark Shook said. “I want to use the bathroom so I don’t have to use them during class.”

Additionally, the closing of the lower common bathrooms in the morning can lead to long term effects on students.

“It changes the inside of my stomach,” Resendz said. “It messes up my bladder a lot and could cause very bad infections having to hold [inside] my urine for that long.”