FALLS VILLAGE, Conn.—A compromise measure appears to have balanced concerns about personal safety and privacy at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
The issue lay in the need to ensure student safety in the bathrooms while at the same time protecting privacy.
“Everyone I talked to just wanted a fair resolution,” said Daniel Lesch, student representative to the Region 1 Board of Education. He said the current compromise has been “very well received.”
The issue arose because some students did not feel comfortable in the school’s restrooms when the doors were shut. Students tend to congregate in the bathrooms and there have been instances of vandalism in the past. The administration imposed an “open door” policy for the restrooms, but this left some students feeling that their privacy was compromised, even though no stalls were visible from the doorway.
Students submitted a petition to the school’s administrators and a survey was conducted to determine the feelings of the student body. The ultimate compromise has been to put in stops that keep the doors ajar without fully opening them.
Principal Ian Strever said he had “thoughtful conversations with a number of students to look at the root causes of why they congregate in there. It seems there is a desire for student-owned spaces where they can gather. We talked about other places, like the library media center, where they can take ownership and decorate the spaces as they wish,” he said.
Superintendent of Schools Melody Brady-Shanley complimented the students on how they had handled the divisive issue. “That is the way we do it in a democracy,” she said. “No one may be perfectly satisfied, but you find a compromise.”
