An MCHS student raises their hand to go to the bathroom. As they head to the third floor bathroom, they see that they’ve been closed off — and blocked by furniture. They sigh as they head to the bathrooms farther along, wondering what happened.

The third floor bathroom was closed at the beginning of February. The third floor’s new wing seating is gone as well, used to block off the entrance. Concerned and frustrated students want to know why.

Hilary Agnello, dean of Upper Campus students, states ,“There were way more kids right around there than there are adults that can supervise. As a result, the number one place in this building where we were experiencing drugs, fights, issues, bullying and harassment was that area.”

Administration had trouble with this issue last year, but never closed the bathrooms until this year when sophomores started using the bathroom more often. 

“We didn’t want to shut down the hallway because kids need to get back and forth between the two locations,” Agnello says. “We needed to close it off temporarily, until we saw a decrease in the behavior. Let’s calm things down, close off the area for the time being and see if things can stabilize.” 

The closing of these specific bathrooms also had the seating for blended students and senior incentive taken away. This is a frustration for many older students.

“I like to think that [behavior] will stabilize,” Agnello says, “because we’ve stopped the habit. We’re hoping that better habits develop like going to class, studying in different locations where there’s not so much student isolation, and then maybe more teachers around. We want to reestablish the good habits before we open up an opportunity for bad habits to happen again, I just trust that the kids are going to want to know what they’re doing.”

With the bathrooms being closed it also brings up concerns with security. A lot of students have reported having trouble and conflict. 

“I think that conflict is stemming from a variety of things like increasing behaviors,” Agnello adds. “There have been more issues being brought to the attention so we are a little bit more on hyper alert because we want to make sure we’re protecting kids. I absolutely can guarantee that anytime any allegation is brought up, it’s investigated to the fullest capacity.”

Many people have noticed the sudden increase in security around the building. Administration has been really pushing online passes and making that less lenient as well. 

Agnello added that the school is trying to maintain a decent ratio between how many kids one security guard can realistically watch. She says that the school refers to security as a safety team because the more security there is, the less opportunities there are for students to get hurt.

As the student walks back to class they wonder when the bathrooms and seating will be reopened and hopes that their classmates will cooperate. They ponder for a little until they see a security guard and they rush back to class.