Hello I 18f am involved in student government at my school, and one issue that we were trying to tackle earlier this year, is a lack of urinal dividers in the boys restrooms. Our school is a two year one for only upperclassmen, and most were torn down by groups that have already graduated. We spoke with our principle earlier in the year, but were told we can’t make permanent changes to the bathrooms, because they’re tearing down the school in a few years. However, that’s no longer the case, instead of tearing the whole school down all at once, they are tearing them down building by building. I’m just really frustrated that nothing is happening with it, and strongly believe that everyone deserves the right to privacy, and I’ve been told by several guys at my school that they hate not having dividers. I’m fully up to fighting my school district over this, but I’m not sure how to go about it. I left a voicemail spur of the moment with the president of our school board over a week ago, but I don’t think anything will come of it. I don’t know what to do to make people care, because I truly believed if people (other than urinal using students/staff) cared about this then it would be fixed. Right now it’s only me really working on it, and I could really use advice on spreading awareness and even changing the school’s mind. I really care about my peers at school, and want them to feel safe while using the bathroom. Any advice is appreciated! Thank you!
10 comments
totally agree. people should have privacy. hell, i think all the urinals should have their own stalls, like the toilets.
i always thought it was unfair in junior high/high school that our locker room showers were one big room, while the women’s locker rooms had individual showers with shower curtains.
my high school didn’t even have doors on the toilet stalls.
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you can try, but don’t be shocked if nobody listens. A, nobody cares what high school kids think or do unless it involves drugs, guns, or sex, or congregating on a street corner, and B) they’re likely not going to make any changes if the building is coming down soon, especially if it costs money.
What I’d do is look beyond the school-rules and beyond what the principal says. Look for any law that’s about privacy or feeling exposed as a minor/student/kid (maybe something like feeling unsafe in a public school?) etc and use that to stand up against the principal
Maybe see if they could make them in shop class?
I still remember in middle school and high school, they read some suggestions at an assembly, and one was the girls wanting locks on the stall doors. All the guys collectively looked at one another, because we had dividers for the toilets, no doors, and no dividers on the urinals.
Find out how much they cost. Then come up with a money raising activity that will raise the money to pay for them. Then execute that activity. You’ll have to get it all approved from the school, but if they students are willing to do the work to raise the money for it, they’ll be more likely to do it.
[This](https://prestigedistribution.com/products/global-partitions-urinal-screen)is how much they cost, well under $100 each. they will need to be installed – talk to the shop department. These are cheap enough there might be a discretionary fund that they have access to. If not you can do any low energy fund raiser to get a couple hundred bucks.
The usual gentlemen’s agreement is to just ignore the person next to you.
Why would you even need to ask for this? Are we not human because we’re male? Were just pigs pissing in open toughs or something?
How about some basic human dignity.
Enlist the PTA. PTAs are mostly useless things anyhow, but this would be a good use of their time: Install some splash guards in the boys bathroom.
But….I will say that peeing with low personal privacy is just part of being a guy and the high school boys might as well get used to it. I mean…..at least they don’t have a trough. Or a tiled wall with water dribbling down and a drain in the floor. I was at a outdoor concert venue once during a weekday with my daughter and stepdaughter. There was nobody there, so I took them in the men’s bathroom and they were just horrified that we had a 100 foot trough. So many questions. “How do you know where to stand? It’s just totally free form? How much space to the next person? Ugh….your elbows might touch? What if you wear flipflops?”
Or take a look at the men’s bathroom at many restaurants…..half the time when the door opens, you can see dudes peeing from the hostess station.
In the end, nobody cares about the privacy of dudes peeing. 🙂
If four guys can piss on the same tree and not need a divider. You sure as hell don’t need to waste school money on them now. Put that money towards more school supplies and better updated books.
If a district has decoded to rear something down there is no way you can convince them to spend money on an upgrade.
If you guys raise the total cost yourselves then they won’t have any real argument against it. It would require a school board employed maintenence person to do the instal to avoid a potential lawsuit. So you would have to get a quote from them. Plus cost of materials. In theory you could get the wood and metal shop to make the dividers to save money