At Neshaminy High School (NHS), the bathrooms are a social hub. However, when students returned for the 2024-2025 school year, almost all of the bathrooms were closed. For weeks, only one bathroom was available upstairs and downstairs for each gender, and two bathrooms in the entire school. 

Rumors were flying around, but no student truly knew why. 

“The reason for bathrooms being closed is we decided to prioritize safety over convenience for a little while,” NHS principal Stephen Garstka said. “Vaping is becoming an issue. One, it’s illegal for students to have the vapes at school; vaping is illegal on school campuses countrywide, just like smoking and drinking, and we are having students flush them down the toilets, which is causing plumbing issues and making our bathrooms disgusting. We closed some down to try and direct students to use bathrooms where we are more likely to have an adult outside that can walk in and check and keep things appropriate.”

Having one bathroom open on each level for each gender has changed, but not all of the bathrooms are open for students in NHS. Even though most students are well aware of why bathroom closures are happening due to vaping and clogged toilets, they still have expressed their frustration, one of them regarding Securly Pass, previously e-Hall pass. 

Securly Pass is an electronic hall pass system implemented at NHS in the 2022-2023 school year. Users send an electronic hall pass to their teacher for approval that has a timer that shows how long students have been out of class. The pass turns yellow after six minutes, indicating to the students and their teacher that they have been out too long.  

During the 2024-2025 school year, the NHS hall aids were given iPads with Securly Pass on them so they could keep track of all the active passes in the school. 

Students have complained that with the bathroom closures, six minutes was not enough time to walk to the nearest open bathroom, do their business and walk back to class, but Garstka assured that Securly Pass is not the biggest issue. 

“I gave staff notice and made them aware that we were going to close some down,” Garstka said. “In terms of the number of minutes, I didn’t give any specific direction, but I think they understood that kids may need to travel a little further.”

Vaping and graffiti in the bathrooms are not the only issues with the bathrooms at Neshaminy; students exhibit other behaviors. 

It is not uncommon for more than one stall to be out of order due to overflow, toilet paper all over the floor and in the toilets, and less-than-ideal conditions all around.
“I haven’t heard a call over the walkie-talkies for a custodian for an overflowing toilet since we started doing this process,” Garstka said. “So let’s stop flushing vapes down the toilet. Let’s get in, go to the bathroom, wash our hands, and go back to class.”