A Lewiston High School student walks into a single stall bathroom Wednesday afternoon in the school’s new wing. Some students addressed the school board about the need to have more bathrooms unlocked and repaired. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — A group of students are pressing school officials to address what they say is an urgent shortage of clean, functioning bathrooms in Lewiston High School.

In an hour-long discussion on Monday, senior Shukri Said and sophomore Adry Viles asked School Committee members to work with school administrators to improve students’ access to bathrooms. They want administrators to open four locked restrooms and make repairs to other restroom facilities in the high school.

Lewiston High School Principal Jonathan Radtke. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

The locked bathrooms, which are only accessible with help from a teacher, are all located in areas of the building which lack supervision. Yet, some of these bathrooms are located near staircases and are especially convenient for students to use between classes.

Other bathrooms in the school have toilets which do not work and doors with broken locks, they said.

Adding to the problem are teachers with strict policies about using bathrooms, they said. Some teachers regularly reject students’ requests to use the bathroom, while others only allow students to use the bathroom during designated class breaks.

Both girls are members of “We Matter,” a student advocacy group associated with Maine Community Integration. In October, Viles wrote an email to members outlining the group’s concerns.

“We need more staff to understand that not every single student who takes more than five minutes to come back from the bathroom is roaming the school or abusing it,” said Said, adding that it often takes students five minutes just to find a bathroom that is open, clean and functional.

A single stall bathroom, background right, at Lewiston High School Wednesday afternoon is just across the hall in the new wing from one of the busiest bathrooms, left, and one of a few multi-stall bathrooms in the school that are open all the time. Some students are requesting there be more access to bathrooms during the school day. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Ward 5 representative Ashley Medina told the School Committee that girls especially need free access, stating that she has heard from “many, many young ladies” who have bled through their clothes after teachers denied their requests to use the restroom.

But administrators say the issue is complex. Some students have been known to abuse bathroom privileges by skipping class, wandering the hallways and hanging out in bathroom stalls. Restroom are also the target of vandalism, a problem made worse last year by a viral TikTok trend encouraging students to wreck bathroom facilities.

The bathrooms in the gym area at Lewiston High School are only open during lunch periods. Locks have been installed, were broken and are now reinforced with a metal plate. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“I’ve been in education for 30 years, and I’ve never been in a high school where bathroom use didn’t come up, usually in the mid-winter,” said Principal Jonathan Radtke, who was hired last July. “You’re always balancing that need to supervise areas with the need to make it readily available.”

Radtke acknowledges that the building layout means some students will need more than five minutes to use a restroom.

“I think most most teachers are understanding of that,” he said. “Some are perhaps a little more rigid than you’d like.”

The new arts and music wing added 11 single-person bathrooms to the high school when it was opened last year, however the wing’s location is not convenient for most students.

Recently, Ward 2 representative Janet Beaudoin and Ward 4 representative Tanya Whitlow toured the high school bathrooms with Superintendent Jake Langlais and Radtke. Both expressed concerns with the number of students they saw “roaming the halls.”

They suggested that the school could ask parent volunteers to help monitor the high school hallways and bathrooms.

“Having that extra set of eyes in the hallways in our schools, just having parents around in general I think would make such a huge difference,” Beaudoin said.

The high school currently has one hallway monitor position, but it is vacant, Radtke said. Unlike some other schools, teachers in the high school do not have assigned duties like hallway monitoring due to their union contract.

Radtke said in his experience, there are a small number of students who are known to wander the hallways.

The bathrooms in the gym area at Lewiston High School, seen Wednesday afternoon, are only open during lunch periods. Locks have been installed, were broken and are now reinforced with a metal plate. Some students are requesting there be more access to bathrooms during the school day. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“The vast majority (of students) do exactly what they need to do, and then you spend a lot of time chasing (those who don’t),” he said.

Ward 1 representative Bruce Damon suggested there is a “difficulty of mutual lack of respect” between teachers and students. However, he emphasized that students must take care of school bathrooms if they are to be available for use.

“You guys have to respect each other,” he said. “If you can’t respect each other, it’s going to be very difficult to earn the respect of the teachers and the administration. Some of this stuff, we’re not just going to give it to you. Some of this stuff you have to earn.”

The high school policy states that students who need to use the restroom should be able to use the restroom, Radtke said. However, he acknowledged that teachers use discretion when allowing students to use bathrooms.

Beyond the four locked bathrooms, he said the school only closes hallway bathrooms in the case of vandalism or sewer issues.

Lewiston High School Principal Jonathan Radtke stands in the stairwell Wednesday afternoon at the entrance of the Lewiston school. Some students are requesting there be more access to bathrooms during the school day. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

The high school has a mix of multi-stall and single use restrooms. Administrators are currently looking into a way to indicate how long a student has been in a single-use restroom from the outside to help staff know when a student has stayed beyond a reasonable period.

In addition to the student advocacy group, the high school’s Student House of Representatives also recently began discussing the problem and possible solutions.

“At the end of the day, I think we have sufficient facilities,” Radtke said. “We need to remind adults to be flexible, and we need to ask students to take responsibility for letting us know when something’s wrong, but also being good citizens in the building and not tying up a resource.”