New Bathroom Policy Rolled Out: Closed Doors Now Permitted
BY ISTAFA RAZVI ’26 & MADISON ZHOU ’28
An old saying goes, when one door closes, another door opens. This November, Jericho High School once again implemented a closed-doors bathroom policy, leaving many students wondering “will the doors ever open again?”
The Jericho High School bathroom doors have been open for over a year now, a choice made to prioritize student safety. Jericho High School Co-Principal Mr. Cummings said, “When vaping was really at an all-time high, we were running into problems. Students were hanging out in the bathroom…Other students who were not vaping felt uncomfortable going into the bathroom, so what we ended up doing was opening the doors up to prevent that problem.”
Since the school made the choice to keep bathroom doors open for safety, administration noticed a decrease in bathroom misuse, leading to the decision to close the doors once more. Mr. Cummings said, “We definitely think that vaping [is] quite a bit lower. So right now we’re essentially hoping that we’re able to close the doors [and] give people the privacy that we would love for them to have.”
While the doors are meant to now be closed, many students have noticed that some bathroom doors are still remain open. Jericho High School Assistant Principal Dr. Finlay and Mr. Cummings both clarified this confusion, explaining that students are re-opening the doors due to their familiarity with the previous open-door policy.
The impact of the High School’s return to a closed-door policy is not yet clear. As Dr. Finlay said, “It’s important that [students] feel like you have privacy when you use the bathroom, but at a certain point we have to prioritize both privacy and safety.”
Dr. Finlay explained that if a student is using the bathroom and they feel uncomfortable or unsafe because other students are vaping, then the closed-door policy needs to be re-evaluated once more.
While the bathroom doors may remain closed for now, Dr. Finlay explained that feedback on the decision to keep the bathroom doors closed will come from different committees, such as Student Council, Shared Decision Making, and the Board of Education. Collectively as a school community, the key to keeping the doors closed is remaining open to good decision-making in school restrooms.
