A student goes to the bathroom on the fourth floor. They wash their hands, look up, and instead of seeing at themselves, they end up making eye contact with some other student. Everytime a student has to wash their hands, they have the fear of people watching them. The new addition’s bathroom design isn’t giving the students enough privacy when they need it.

MCHS has added a 70,000 square feet addition, the Center for Science, Technology and Iindustry built and designed by The World Architects for about 44 million dollars. Now Upper Campus has a new broadcasting room, construction lab, advanced graphing lab, and biomedical lab for all upperclassmen to use. The school opened this new wing to students at the start of the 2021-2022 school year.

The design and opening of the new bathrooms has given the students and staff less privacy than before. The fourth floor bathroom has the most revealing design out of all the bathrooms on campus. The sinks and mirrors are out in the open and both the girls and guys sinks are next to each other. The mirrors are placed on an angle where if you look up you’re able to see people staring or make eye contact with them. When people are walking by the bathroom or sitting in the cushioned areas they have full view of you washing your hands or leaving the bathroom. A sophomore at MCHS complained, “I would like to change the sink placement or the fact that there isn’t a door going into each designated area separately such as a guys door and a girls door to go in one area, or a wall at least to make it more private.” Students want their privacy back and want the design of the bathrooms to change. 

The other bathrooms have doors, although they are always open, the new wing has no doors at all. The school has given up on the students’ privacy in the bathrooms. The same sophomore stated, “My opinion on the fourth floor bathroom is that it’s too open and there isn’t that much of a direct separation between the girls and boys bathroom.” Students want to change the bathrooms for them and their peers’ privacy. Another sophomore from MCHS explains, “What I would like to change is maybe add doors so it’s more private and move the bathrooms a little farther away from each other.” Another point is that the bathrooms are very close to one another. There should be more space from each bathroom to maximize privacy.

There is no safety in a bathroom with no doors leading into it. That same sophomore states, “What if a person who wants to hurt people comes into the school. Then there are no doors to protect the students in the bathroom. What if there’s a fire? The bathroom has no door blocking them so the bathroom will get destroyed.” Students have concerns regarding the safety of the bathrooms. The doors have been taken away and left students afraid for their safety.

The security and administrators of MCHS have chosen these designs of the bathrooms to decrease any illegal substances or vandalisms in the inner and outer parts of stalls. They also want to catch people who are smoking/vaping in the stalls and also find those who have been vandalizing the bathrooms. But privacy has been removed from students and staff at MCHS Upper Campus and their safety and privacy is in jeopardy.