Bathrooms Become the Site of Strange Behavior
It's the one area of the school that isn't under close surveillance, but that's beginning to change.
A freshman girl rushes into the bathroom, a camera flashes as she walks through the open doorway. Above her, detectors hum quietly, scanning for suspicious noises. When she leaves, another photo captures her exit —just one of thousands taken each day.
Walking into the bathroom isn’t as private as it used to be. A quick photo is taken, and vape detectors keep silent watch. It might sound extreme— but after seeing what sometimes happens in those spaces, many students understand why.
“I saw two girls making out in the bathroom,” Natalie Schmutzer ‘29 said.
“Hearing relationship gossip from individuals in separate stalls on either side of me,” Kylie Kelm ‘26 said.
“I personally haven’t seen anything strange,” Max Pearsall ‘29 said. “But a friend of mine has had an encounter with an older boy with a strange brown paper bag with drugs in it. The boy asked if he wanted some of what was in his bag, and thankfully he refused.”
“I would say there’s been a number of things,” Grace Androli ‘27 said. “Blood on the walls, pads stuck on the wall, odd drawings or notes in the stalls, or even breakfast food sitting around.”
Even with those experiences, what doesn’t seem to bother most students is the surveillance itself. In fact, many say the lack of privacy is worth it.
“I think it makes us safer for having devices that can capture evidence of stuff that shouldn’t be happening,” Braxton Teschendorf ‘27 said. “And it allows for there to be consequences to prevent issues in the future.”
Some students admit they’ve stopped thinking much about it.
“I think the school’s cameras are taking videos of me without my explicit permission whenever I’m in the hallways anyway,” Kelm said. “So if I have to be upset about the bathroom entering/exiting cameras I have to be upset about the hallway videos too. Worrying about constantly being surveilled is just too exhausting to worry about so I don’t.”
Others acknowledge the value of monitoring but wish it could be done more selectively.
“I think that it is good to have a concrete record of events in the case that illegal activities are occurring in the restroom, but a picture every time someone enters or exits is a little excessive,” Anthony Schmidt ‘28 said. “I would go with a different solution —if a picture is taken immediately if one of the sensors is tripped, or if there is a significant amount of noise or movement in the bathroom itself. This is a simpler option that can still provide a good record of events.”
Even with mixed feelings about privacy, many students see the cameras and sensors as a small price to pay for a safer, healthier school.
