Tania Flores

The feeling of using the school bathroom can be terrifying for some people.

Imagine sitting in class. It’s first-period geometry, and you’re trying to prove why a triangle is a triangle. You feel a rumbling in your stomach and know you’re running out of time. You raise your hand, making eye contact with your teacher. They smile at you, and you stand up. They tell you to, “wait until this lesson is over.” Ten minutes go by…nothing. 20 go by…nothing. Your teacher won’t let you go.

Next thing you know it’s a passing period—finally, freedom from your captivity. You rush to the bathroom, noticing eight people are mingling around in there. You power through the social embarrassment and walk to the stall. You barely make it in time before you explode. The stench hits you first, instantly filling you with regret.

This is only a portion of the trauma that students face when using the school bathrooms. Nico Carrillo-Sanchez (‘26) is an avid school bathroom user and states, “Using the school bathroom is now a traumatic experience.”

In one of Carrillo-Sanchez’s bathroom tales, he notes, “One time I was using the bathroom and I heard footsteps, then someone yells ‘AY! Who the F*** is pooping in there?’”

“Seconds later they start kicking the stall and rattling the door,” Carrillo-Sanchez further adds. There are three stages when using the public restrooms in school. The first stage is verbal taunting. After that comes stage two, the mental scare. Oftentimes stages one and two go hand in hand. But the last and final stage is the physical stage.

The physical stage is the worst of the worst, this is where humiliation is truly set in stone.

Furthering Carrillo-Sanchez’s story, this same fateful day, after the kicking and rattling of the stall door, the worst thing happened. They stopped. This is where stage three comes into play. He heard their muffled laughter as they left the bathroom. Seconds later, he hears footsteps returning, and a trash can comes flying over and lands perfectly on his head.

This is only a portion of the horrors Carrillo-Sanchez, as well as others, endured using the school bathrooms. Thankfully, however, our good friend and expert school bathroom user, Jacob Morales (‘25) has some quick tips and tricks for us students to take advantage of.

His first tip is to ONLY use private bathrooms, as there are some scattered around the school. Some may be better than others, but any of them are better than a common public one.

Another one of his tips is for those who may have let a stinky one out. If you need to mask the scent, get a handful of soap, put it in the toilet, leave it for a few minutes, and flush. This will help get rid of the scent slightly.

No matter what you do, using the school bathroom will always be a daunting experience. There are always things we can do to minimize the shame and keep our identities hidden whilst using it. Be cautious whenever possible and stay vigilant when you use the bathroom.