South High’s commons is a place for students to come and get their homework done for their academics, come and catch up with their friends or just come to just relax in between their classes. This all comes from Flex Mod for these students to have this freedom. But is this freedom being restricted by closing off certain areas of the commons throughout points of the day? Such as the bathrooms for schedule checks, students skipping class, and people gathering in there. Then the vending machines, for people skipping class and coming down to the vending machines claiming to be “Buying something”. 

So we spoke to a South High Senior named Caitlin Vang about how she feels about this happening to the commons throughout the past year or so. We asked Caitlin if she has had to experience any issues regarding the bathrooms being closed at points throughout the day and she said “There have been issues, not so much the girls making tiktoks as most do that in the hallway by the fieldhouse. I haven’t had problems with fights as fights can happen anywhere within the school not just in the commons bathroom. The biggest issue for me is the gathering in bathrooms, admittedly you can see some girls vaping in the bathroom at school or crowding a singular stall to do whatever (gross). I hate when I enter the bathroom and there are girls sitting on the sink area so I cannot wash my hands or have difficulty finding an unoccupied area. And strangely, I’m looked at like a problem just because I want to wash my hands in the area they’re sitting in. There are groups of girls who also sit in the bathroom and just…cuddle, get out of the bathroom, and do that somewhere else. I would like to use the bathroom and leave without any issues. It’s crazy how people just rally in the bathroom here at school because I don’t believe people would do this in a public bathroom at a store or their own house”. From a student’s perspective this is a very frustrating situation to be apart of, not being able to use the restroom, when you actually need to use the restroom. Something else that many students have expressed their frustration on is the vending machines being closed off all parts of the school day except 11:10 to 12:10 during both of the lunch periods. Caitlin also speaks on the fairness of the situation she says “For starters, I obviously cannot do my business. This is frustrating as the boys’ bathroom always remains open, it’s very inconvenient and sporadic because you never know if it is open or not. I personally do not want to have to question whether or not I can use the bathroom.” 

We spoke with Caitlin Vang again but this time it’s her thought on the vending machinees being closed off. Caitlin says she “Often went to the vending machines every 3-4 mods and that these restrictions have made me very sad, hungry, and dehydrated”. We spoke to South Highs Dean of Students Ben Steen on why these restrictions for both the bathroom and the vending machines had been made and he says “During schedule checks, students will find the bathrooms in order to not get their schedules checked and wait for myself or another staff member to finish their check/move onto another table. Thus getting themselves out of an Out of Bounds Referral. However, locked bathrooms are not always about schedule checks. A lot of times bathrooms throughout the school are locked because of vandalism and damage done to toilets/sinks/doors. Fighting in bathrooms has also been an ongoing issue” The for the vending machines Steen says “ I can absolutely see how this has been frustrating. If I were in high school and our vending machines got shut off during the day, my response would be similar to that of students right now. I do think this is very close to how society works at times. Laws, policies, ordinances, are put into place and they are rarely put in place to address people who are doing the right things. That’s not to say this is the right/best or most effective

solution. Like I said, I would love students to help be a part of our solutions”.

But there is another point of view on the issues. We spoke to Patty Guenther, one of South High’s activities office secretaries about if she felt this was the best solution for the issues that have occurred. Guenther says “This is a hard question to answer because I see it from both sides. The bathrooms I don’t feel are quite as big of a deal as there are always more bathrooms. The vending machines are more of an issue as I always hate to see the kids who are doing the right things punished by those that are not doing the right things”.  We also spoke to her if s

he wished there was a better way to handle these issues at South and she said “I absolutely do wish for that but I also know that our administration does not take these decisions lightly. Their goal is to keep kids in class and be successful”.

Over all these issues at South are very touchy to different points of view. For the facility having students skipping and damaging expensive equipment is very frustrating and they had to take more extreme measures to fix the problems involving students at South. But then for the actual students who do what they are supposed to do and attend class it’s frustrating because they are losing out on the benefits and luxury of the commons from their fellow classmates’ bad choices.