LONGVIEW — After spending 12 days with at least a third of the school’s bathrooms closed, Kelso High School students can now use any of the restrooms in the school, according to a district news release.
The school closed six of the 12 bathrooms from Dec. 17-21, and four of the 12 from Jan. 7-15 due to “reasons related to student safety and illegal behavior.” District officials declined to elaborate on the cause for the closures.
Brian Osterloh, father of a Kelso High School senior, said school officials told him the bathrooms were closed to “curb kids from vaping.” District spokeswoman Michele Larsen confirmed that vaping was one of the illegal behaviors in question.
Osterloh learned of the situation when his daughter came home, complaining that she’d received a tardy after “being diverted to go to another restroom” between passing periods. The bathroom nearest her classroom was closed, he said.
“All of the bathrooms were locked down other than main street,” said Osterloh, referring to the hallway that runs through the heart of the school.
A district news release disputes that claim, stating that no more than half of the bathrooms were closed at one time.
All facilities were reopened Wednesday, according to the release, and no students received disciplinary action for being late to class due to bathroom closures, said Michele Larsen, district spokeswoman.
“If students were marked tardy due to bathroom closures, they can have it excused by going to the office,” she said.
Osterloh said he called school officials earlier this week to ask why the bathrooms were closed, and some students took to social media Tuesday to protest the closures.
“All of us are using the same bathroom located at the front of the school, so you could imagine the line is incredibly long, and yes we are late to class because of it,” posted Megan Angalina Tuesday around 1:40 p.m. The post ends with a simple call to action: “Unlock our bathrooms!”
Osterloh said the complaints on social media likely spurred the district to reopen its facilities — though his daughter told him Wednesday that the school had only opened one bathroom in each wing while the others remained closed.
Larsen said the closures were done to “keep our students safe and keep their well-being as much intact as possible.” School officials were waiting to open the restrooms until they had staff members available to monitor them, she said.
“We opened them up as much as we could, as soon as we could,” Larsen said. “We now have people available for monitoring, so that’s making a difference.”
Federal health officials have called vaping among high school students a health crisis.
