Students at Morton West High School had been losing out on valuable class time and are now staying in class rather than using the restrooms. Last year, around January, Principal Josh McMahon decided students at Morton West High School, who go to the bathroom during class require an escort from a security guard. Many students were vague about the new student regulations, and they even thought it was ridiculous and uncalled for. Meanwhile, Principal McMahon loves them, “I love them. I completely feel they made a difference. Now students understand and realize if they go to the bathroom one time a week during class and you break that down throughout the entire year, you’re gonna end up missing almost a full day of school-based upon you going to the bathroom one time a week. That’s unacceptable,” said McMahon.

The way this procedure works is if a student needs to use the bathroom, the teachers are permitted to call down for a security personnel to come to the classroom and walk them to the bathroom. Even if it’s for water, they will still need an escort. “I think they’re irrelevant,” said Betzabe Barajas,’20. “They take up too much time and sometimes the student has an emergency.

For example, one time my teacher had to take me to the bathroom herself because she tried getting a security escort to the bathroom and nobody came.” Our very own visual arts teacher at Morton, Ms. Sotomayor even agrees, “they have a good intention with it but it’s more of a hassle, we don’t have enough security guards. Usually, it’s an emergency and when I do call an escort, they never come.” Bathroom escorts are an effort to provide and maintain a safe learning environment for all students and staff, with a focus on students spending more time engaged in learning activities. “Before we had bathroom escorts we had students roaming around the halls all the time. Now, with escorts, it’s directly to the bathroom and right back to class” said Johnnie, a security guard at Morton West.