The stalls are always full. This is the reality of the school restrooms at Van Nuys High School; seriously, ask any student here, and they would blindly agree.

Restrooms are an unavoidable necessity regardless of the glamour – or in our case, the lack thereof. The restroom situation at Van Nuys High is a daily problem that the school has not taken seriously enough, and it’s time for that to change.

According to U.S. News, around 2,176 students attend Van Nuys High. That’s a lot of students suffering from the issue of the crowdedness, untidiness and abuse of the bathroom pass.

The number of times I’ve seen more than one girl in a stall in the school restrooms is honestly appalling. There’s no need for more than one person to be in a stall, and it’s become evident to me that they’re not using the restroom for its intended purpose.

In addition to the stalls being beyond maximum capacity, we can more often than not hear the blaring of TikTok audios. Is this really what we should be doing in the bathroom?

In fact, due to the overuse of bathrooms, the students were robbed of having mirrors. According to EdWeek, most schools rid bathrooms of mirrors because of the excessive amount of time students allegedly spend taking mirror pictures or recording TikToks.

Unfortunately, this effort hasn’t necessarily been effective in reducing bathroom trip durations, as people are still in the stalls recording TikToks. The only difference now is that we don’t have mirrors, and chances are that they’re not coming back.

Due to the aforementioned reasons, an incredibly long line is often formed outside the stalls, brimming with students possessing a genuine need for the restroom. There’s basically nothing that can be done to get the stall-hogging students out. The effect? The teachers of students who were genuinely waiting begin to lose patience with these innocent students who did no wrong.

There have been many times when I’ve been stuck outside the stalls because of the misuse and abuse of the bathroom. This also means I can’t return to class promptly, which often frustrates my teachers.

Another major issue is the unsanitary state of the restrooms themselves. This has nothing to do with the janitors who spend hours cleaning the bathrooms, but instead our responsibility as students to ensure we manage the upkeep of the restrooms that we have to use.

There’s always something we can do to improve. But the truth is, administrators can only take student issues as seriously as we take them. The initiative begins with us, students, making sure there are no tissues or toilet paper left wastefully on the floor

Even a small group of students beginning to take these issues seriously can truly transform the environment for students as a whole. So many students go to the Health Office and ask to use the restroom there simply because of the flailing cleanliness of the general school restrooms.

Unfortunately, the restrooms in the Health Office are dedicated to those with needs specific to using that restroom, so other students are not permitted to use them.

The truth is, the major reason students prefer the restroom in the Health Office is that so few students use that restroom, and those who do make sure to maintain it. This really just goes to show that if we take maintenance seriously, restrooms in the school can be just as up to par as those in the Health Office.

Finally, the abuse of the bathroom passes. I’m sure we’re all well aware of the one or two students who if the bathroom pass lands in their hands, we know that they will not be back for at least 40 minutes.

This is frustrating for students who are genuinely waiting on the pass to use the restroom and students are out with the pass, talking to their friends, or simply hanging out. Now, this isn’t true of every student, but some students are infamous for it, and this creates an issue for everyone.

I’ve experienced this myself: that one girl in fifth period leaves for the bathroom, and if I need to use the restroom, I’m guaranteed not to get to use it until the next period. There’s nothing we can truly do as students but wait.

Admittedly, teachers try to address the students who overstay their restroom visits, but they truly cannot prevent students from using the restroom because they cannot possibly know whether or not it’s a real emergency.

If we set up a system with bathroom monitors who are dedicated to ensuring that students spend no more than 10 minutes in the restroom, we can improve the crowdedness, cleanliness and the abuse of the bathroom pass.

There’s no perfect time for anything in life, that’s just the truth. If we don’t take action now, when will we? How long can we possibly put off a reform that is of clear necessity?

So, now’s the time. Regardless of how minuscule and irrelevant this issue may seem, it’s time we address it for what it is. It’s a problem that needs to be solved, and it’s high time that we solve it.