Suburban Illinois High School Removes Bathroom Doors–Here’s Why

It's been a good number of years since I was a high school student, and even though there was no such thing as "vaping" at that time, there were students who would sneak in cigarettes. There was also your typical goofing around, and the occasional fight.

Discipline for smoking, goofing off, or fighting was usually quick in coming from school administrators, even though they never completely got it stopped (at least during my 4 years).

Of all the solutions I remember being discussed, like a permanent "attendant" being hired to spend their days policing the boys and girls bathrooms, the idea of removing the doors to the bathrooms never came up as far as I know.

That was then, this is now, and different times require different approaches, it would appear.

Here In Illinois, A West-Suburban High School Is Trying To Get Things In Their Bathrooms Under Control By Removing Some Of The Bathroom Doors

That school would be Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF), where their unique attempt at stopping unwanted behavior in their bathrooms has resulted in the removal of exterior bathroom doors. Just to be clear, we're talking about the exterior doors, not the individual stall doors inside the bathrooms.

Here's the statement issued by OPRF high school regarding the bathroom door situation:

The decision to remove the exterior doors of most bathrooms at the school was based on an evidence-based practice in architecture called crime prevention through environmental design or CPTED. One of the most frequent complaints that we received last year from parents, faculty, staff, and students was about inappropriate activities taking place in the bathrooms, such as vaping, skipping class, fighting, and so forth.

The exterior doors were removed only from bathrooms where doing so did not provide a direct line of sight into the area where stalls or urinals are located. None of the stall doors were removed. The bathroom entrances now function similarly to those you see at airports, many schools, and other public places where the bathrooms do not have entrance doors.