SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky (WDRB) - After an increase in vaping incidents, Bullitt County High School officials have begun locking all but one bathroom when classes are in session, a policy that it upsetting some parents.
The school's 1,100 students are given access only to the front office bathroom when classes are in session. Between classes, all bathrooms are available.
Parent Mary Ann Baker, whose 15-year-old son attends the school, dislikes the policy.
“They have one bathroom for the whole school to use during class time. One,” she said.
Her son often requested to use the bathroom but was not allowed, she said. Since the school adopted the policy, her son has been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome.
“Maybe I wouldn’t have known he had this problem that he has, had he not been told he had to hold it,” Baker said.
Secondary Education Director Rachelle Bramlage-Schomburg said school administrators have to weigh students' needs and school safety. It’s an issue with which the school has grappled for a couple of years.
“How do we allow kids to use the restroom that need to use the restroom as well as ensure safety because besides the vaping there were also fights taking place?” Bramlage-Schomburg said.
But that bathroom struggle for Baker’s son and students recently increased.
The school’s main bathroom has been out of commission because of a damaged pipe, which has reduced the number of available options between classes even more.
“If they have to stand in line for one restroom, that is interfering with their educational time in the classroom,” said Baker. “It just blows my mind. You have to go to the restroom and you are being told ‘No.’”
Since the new policy was implemented, administrators say they have seen a decrease in the number of vaping incidents in bathrooms. Each school has its own bathroom policy.
Bramlage-Schomburg said it's a tough situation, because some students took advantage of the previous policy, by asking to use the bathroom and then going to vape instead.
The district told WDRB the main bathroom pipe will be fixed by the time school begins on Friday.
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