Bellevue East teachers now have to monitor the restrooms, by standing in the hallway outside of the restrooms, throughout the school due to overcrowding in these areas in between classes, vaping issues, and other behavioral problems which has led to some concerns among staff and students. 

The new supervision of the restrooms was implemented this year to cut down the amount of students who use the restroom area for other purposes such as vaping. Now each teacher has an assigned time to monitor their hallway’s restroom every other day.

“I would say teachers have always monitored the restrooms.” Dean Chelsea Hoglund said,“We just made it more of like a schedule so it’s a little more structured this year so that way we have more adult supervision throughout the building.” 

The goal of monitoring the restrooms is to make sure these areas are safe for students. By having teachers supervise the restrooms they can tell students to get to class and be there if any problems arise. The monitoring also works to maintain a safe educational environment. 

“Just keeping students safe; our number one goal.” Hoglund said, “Safe, healthy, [and] doing what we need to be doing.”

During passing periods students will occupy the restroom space between class periods which leads to overcrowding. When students do this, many aren’t using the restroom as it’s intended. According to Dean Chuck Wright some students use the space to vape, hangout, and even eat their lunches. 

“Honestly, we do have some issues with vaping and we’re trying to kind of crack down on that using the staff to facilitate that.” Wright said. 

Instructor Rebekah Sidzyik monitors the girls restroom in the K-Wing every other day after the first period. She says that as a teacher her responsibility is to make sure the bathroom is clear and that students get to class. 

“It’s not been bad, I wasn’t too excited about it when I heard that we would have doody duty” Sidzyik said. 

It can be difficult for teachers to get students out of the restrooms. Sidzyik says that in the K-wing, during passing, all of the stalls can be full with three or four girls waiting. The amount of people is only part of the problem when teachers try to clear the restrooms. 

“The problem is, in my classrooms, kids will listen to me because I have established a relationship and stuff, but most of the time, when I go in the bathroom, I don’t know most of the kids that are hanging out in there, so they don’t listen very well.” Sidzyik said. 

Hoglund says that the current solution does seem to be working in the sense that students are aware of the teachers which helps to move students along. She also says that the restroom situation is comparatively better than last year.

“It’s definitely helped kids get to class on time and getting kids to where they need to be.” Hoglund said.

Despite the current solution of adult supervision, there are other possible solutions that other school districts in Nebraska have turned to. According to Andrew Ozaki’s article, written for KETV NewsWatch 7, Lincoln Public Schools implemented vape detectors in all of their restrooms in 2023. Vape detectors are highly sensitive and can detect nicotine and THC. 

“So we’ve definitely looked into it [vape detectors], there is a cost to it, it’s something that a lot of districts have gone to and it might be something we do in the future but we don’t know for sure,” Hoglund said.

Hoglund says that vape detectors can be imperfect. They can falsely go off and disrupt the learning environment. It can also be challenging if a detector falsely goes off when many students are in the restroom. 

“There are so many different things out there and perfume can set it off and other things can set it off so just making sure we are doing what’s best and not hindering the educational setting as much as we can.” Hoglund said. 

Students such as sophomore Yaidelis Ramirez Jimenez still see that the bathrooms are filled with people during passing periods. She says that because there are so many people in the restroom area and passing period is only five minutes, using the restroom during passing takes too much time.

“There are a lot of people; I refuse to go during passing period.” Ramirez Jimenez said. 

During class time, Bellevue East uses the Securly app where students fill out a pass to go to the restroom. The app only allows so many students to be out of the classroom and using the restroom at a time. Ramirez Jimenez suggests limiting the number of students who can be in the restroom as a possible solution. 

“Maybe like only having a certain amount of people in the bathroom during passing period and for teachers to be more strict about it.” Ramirez Jimenez said.