This school year, false fire alarms have been an ongoing issue on campus. Most, if not all, of these constant false alarms have originated in the bathrooms. I think we all know what that means. Kids smoking and vaping in bathrooms has been a persistent issue on Roseville High’s campus but now it’s begun to affect everyone else on campus unavoidably.

These incessant fire alarms bring everything we do on campus to a halt, from taking tests and giving instruction in classrooms, to the important work being done in Admin. As a result, many are frustrated by the increasing frequency of these aggravating alarms.

“It’s pretty frustrating. It interrupts classes and at this point most people know it’s a false alarm so it’s just kind of redundant,” said Junior Abby Heckler.

More than just frustrating, these false alarms are desensitizing students to emergency alerts. In my experience, when alarm bells ring, students are unfazed and lack urgency because no one believes there’s an actual emergency. And so far there hasn’t been reason to react otherwise.

“At the end of the day, …we all know that fires aren’t actually happening,” said Junior Josh Romaniolis.

While triggering the fire alarms is the most prominent issue, student smoking has had a myriad of other adverse effects on bathrooms, leaving them unavailable for those just looking to relieve themselves.

“Almost every day…, you see the [bathroom] doors closed and then you gotta find another one, and that just has you wasting more time going to a bathroom and out of class,” said Romaniolis.

Many students report avoidance of campus bathrooms altogether to avoid the various issues in the bathroom, which can have other effects on student learning.

“I try to avoid going to the bathroom on campus because sometimes when I walk in there it’s literally just a cloud of smoke and I don’t want to be around any of that,” said Heckler.

The things students do to avoid using the bathroom can be a hindrance in a classroom environment. Some students may avoid drinking water to lessen the urge, leading to dehydration. Dehydration can cause headaches, fatigue, and light-headedness that can interfere with learning.

However, not every student feels strongly about these false alarms, and some even welcome the respite from the monotony of classes.

“I’m not really bothered by it or anything…, Honestly I kind of like it because I get to leave class… It doesn’t really affect me,” said Junior Anton Romero.

“I don’t really care that much, but it does get kind of annoying,” said Junior Fiona Nguyen.

Some students believe that the solution to these problems is stricter supervision of bathrooms and stricter punishment for violations.

“Better surveillance of the bathrooms–not cameras inside the bathrooms–but people in front of it, making sure that everyone’s not ruining what we have,” said Nguyen

“When one of these false alarms happens…, maybe some of the campus monitors… could go to the bathrooms and figure out which students are doing it and then work from there to punish it and stop it without hurting other students,” said Heckler

But closing bathrooms and increasing monitors are only temporary solutions, a bandage on a gaping wound. We need more permanent solutions that can deter students and enable campus staff to take action against this issue when it may arise.

Some solutions that have proved effective on other campuses are keeping cameras outside bathrooms while having detectors for vaping and smoking inside the bathrooms themselves. One example, Melrose High School in Massachusetts, implemented nicotine and thc detectors in bathrooms leading to an anecdotal dramatic reduction in bathroom vaping as well as vandalism. The tech allows staff to know who was inside at the time of the alarm going off, and the efficacy of these measures may deter students from attempting to smoke in the bathrooms in the first place.

Enforcing these rules can be difficult, especially without egregiously invading privacy or reducing bathrooms rights for everyone on campus, but shutting down a bathroom every time something happens can not be our only option.

“Sometimes I have to walk really far just to find a bathroom that isn’t filled with smoke or… closed,” said Heckler

“They shouldn’t punish the whole population because of a group of kids…” said Romaniolis, “the school definitely needs to be rethinking some things because it’s not working”

These complaints haven’t fallen on deaf ears. The school is holding a Site Council meeting in the library on Oct 24th, from 4pm to 5pm, that is open to the public. One of the topics on the agenda is what to do about students smoking in bathrooms, as well as general school security. If you have a public comment that you’d like to make, you’ll find a link to the form in the October agenda which you can find in the October 20 School digest in your email.
Hopefully these issues will be a thing of the past sometime soon.