In response to the student listening sessions held Feb. 3, 5 and 11, the Niles West safety team reversed the decision to lock student bathrooms.

In order to promote cleanliness and safety in the bathrooms, Director of Safety Al Lopez and Assistant Principal of Operations Mark Thomas determined that locking was the best procedure. Starting Jan. 2026, student bathrooms were locked on a randomized rotation, which allowed safety team members to supervise the unlocked bathrooms. There are 25 bathrooms in the school, so the security team reasoned that having some bathrooms locked would enable closer management of the open bathrooms.

“There are students that shared [locked bathrooms] can be inconvenient or can be hard at times,” Thomas said. “When we hear that, we want to try to do whatever we can do to assist in promoting good choices and making those opportunities for kids not to have to go in [the bathrooms] and feel like this is difficult for [them].”

Part of the reasoning for locking the doors at first was due to reported behaviors happening within the bathrooms. Past instances of vandalism and vaping prompted the discussion of the installation of vape detectors.

“We just know, and even from feedback from kids, when bathrooms are supervised, better choices are made,” Thomas said. “And if they’re not supervised, it’s an invitation, in that regard, to make it more challenging.”

Past concerns prompting their decision to lock the bathrooms included students dropping objects in toilets and outdoor salt being tracked onto the floors, leading to bathrooms being shut down for maintenance. The safety team believed that locking bathrooms daily would help avoid incidents such as those.

“From the bigger picture of things, parents [and] students appreciate when they know there’s safety and supervision in the bathrooms,” Thomas said. “So that’s the intent…cleanliness, safety and security.”

Listening sessions with administrators were held during lunch periods. Students were asked to RSVP and were given Chick-fil-A for lunch. Up to 30 students were allowed in each session. Students who attended brought up an array of topics from prom to concerns about locked bathrooms. Junior Aliyat Olushesi shared her frustration with the bathroom situation at the listening session held on Feb. 10 during fourth period.

“I think that locking the bathroom was not helpful in stopping the problem of people vaping in the bathroom,” Olushesi said. “They were essentially punishing everyone, even though it’s just a few [students] who are causing all of this commotion.”

Olushesi’s input was in agreement with a majority of the students at West, many of whom believe that bathrooms were closed in order to decrease vaping. It was ultimately determined to unlock the bathrooms to avoid inconveniencing students who had good intentions when going to the bathroom.

The safety team will continue to supervise unlocked bathrooms for cleanliness and behavior.

“If the safety team member sees something that’s not supposed to be happening, they’ll address it,” Lopez said. “And if there’s compliance, there’s no issue…they move on.”