Jasper
Senior Member
More fodder for the book I'm gonna write one day....."The Death Of Common Sense in Government Schools" 
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At FCHS, you gotta learn to hold it
Tue, 01/29/2008 - 5:07pmBy: John Thompson
During classes, there’s 1 locked bathroom for all 1,300 high school kids
If you attend Fayette County High School these days, you have to develop a strong bladder.
That’s because officials have locked down all but one bathroom while classes are in session. That’s one bathroom on the entire campus for more than 1,300 students.
After the class bells ring, any student needing to answer a call of nature must first trek to the school office, ask permission and wait for officials to issue a key to the visitors’ restroom. Sometimes there’s a line of students waiting for the one facility, according to one student.
School spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach confirmed this week that a new bathroom policy is in place at the high school. The policy is in response to an arrest Jan. 3 of a student at Fayette County High School for participating in a “beatdown” gang initiation in a school bathroom Nov. 1, according to police reports.
The new policy mandates that if a student has to go to the bathroom after any class has started, the student has to head to the office and obtain a key to the visitor’s bathroom.
While students are in class, the bathrooms near the classrooms are locked and only open during the time that students change classes. But the added bathrooms’ availability is dependent on teachers with keys opening the restrooms during the short breaks between classes.
“It’s not a district-wide policy, but something the administration felt was needed to maintain the safety of the students,” Berry-Dreisbach said.
She added that other schools around the state have implemented the policy, so this is not something new the school system created.
But students at the high school are not happy and have sent in Free Speech items to The Citizen voicing their displeasure.
“I think you’ll find that most students want to use the bathroom for its intended purposes. A few fools shouldn’t ruin it for the rest of us. For goodness’ sakes, it was only ONE incident! Bathroom gang fights don’t happen every day, or even every month. There is no reason to take such harsh measures for an isolated incident. And besides, what’s to stop the gangs from finding other places to fight on campus? What if a gang fight occurred in the Commons area? Should we lock that down too?” wrote one student.
Berry-Dreisbach said the system realizes it’s an inconvenience, but the system maintains a priority on student safety and this was a measure that needed to be put in place.
But writers to The Citizen said the policy is not being carried out correctly.
“What a mistake. I went to the bathroom that was located nearest to the class that I was just in. The door was locked. I stood there and waited for two minutes, but no one came to unlock it. So I decided I would try a different bathroom downstairs, which would be closest to my next class. It was locked as well! So I just decided to forgo it and go to my locker. As I walked by the restroom while walking to my next class, I finally saw a teacher unlock it.... Right when the two-minute bell rang. If I had gone then, I would’ve been late for class. How can these teachers expect us to go to the bathroom between classes when half of the time, the teachers themselves are too lazy and/or irresponsible to unlock them? This rule is unnecessary and absurd, and it should be repealed. It creates more problems than it solves and reflects poorly on the administrators who thought of it.”
The teen responsible for the bathroom lockdown is Andre Scott, 17, of Vickery Lane, who was charged with four felonies relating to gang activity and one misdemeanor count of disrupting a public school, police said.
Fayetteville Police Chief Steve Heaton said Scott is apparently a leader of the gang called GBD, which includes members of the nationally based gangs, the Bloods and the Crips.
_______________________________________________
At FCHS, you gotta learn to hold it
Tue, 01/29/2008 - 5:07pmBy: John Thompson
During classes, there’s 1 locked bathroom for all 1,300 high school kids
If you attend Fayette County High School these days, you have to develop a strong bladder.
That’s because officials have locked down all but one bathroom while classes are in session. That’s one bathroom on the entire campus for more than 1,300 students.
After the class bells ring, any student needing to answer a call of nature must first trek to the school office, ask permission and wait for officials to issue a key to the visitors’ restroom. Sometimes there’s a line of students waiting for the one facility, according to one student.
School spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach confirmed this week that a new bathroom policy is in place at the high school. The policy is in response to an arrest Jan. 3 of a student at Fayette County High School for participating in a “beatdown” gang initiation in a school bathroom Nov. 1, according to police reports.
The new policy mandates that if a student has to go to the bathroom after any class has started, the student has to head to the office and obtain a key to the visitor’s bathroom.
While students are in class, the bathrooms near the classrooms are locked and only open during the time that students change classes. But the added bathrooms’ availability is dependent on teachers with keys opening the restrooms during the short breaks between classes.
“It’s not a district-wide policy, but something the administration felt was needed to maintain the safety of the students,” Berry-Dreisbach said.
She added that other schools around the state have implemented the policy, so this is not something new the school system created.
But students at the high school are not happy and have sent in Free Speech items to The Citizen voicing their displeasure.
“I think you’ll find that most students want to use the bathroom for its intended purposes. A few fools shouldn’t ruin it for the rest of us. For goodness’ sakes, it was only ONE incident! Bathroom gang fights don’t happen every day, or even every month. There is no reason to take such harsh measures for an isolated incident. And besides, what’s to stop the gangs from finding other places to fight on campus? What if a gang fight occurred in the Commons area? Should we lock that down too?” wrote one student.
Berry-Dreisbach said the system realizes it’s an inconvenience, but the system maintains a priority on student safety and this was a measure that needed to be put in place.
But writers to The Citizen said the policy is not being carried out correctly.
“What a mistake. I went to the bathroom that was located nearest to the class that I was just in. The door was locked. I stood there and waited for two minutes, but no one came to unlock it. So I decided I would try a different bathroom downstairs, which would be closest to my next class. It was locked as well! So I just decided to forgo it and go to my locker. As I walked by the restroom while walking to my next class, I finally saw a teacher unlock it.... Right when the two-minute bell rang. If I had gone then, I would’ve been late for class. How can these teachers expect us to go to the bathroom between classes when half of the time, the teachers themselves are too lazy and/or irresponsible to unlock them? This rule is unnecessary and absurd, and it should be repealed. It creates more problems than it solves and reflects poorly on the administrators who thought of it.”
The teen responsible for the bathroom lockdown is Andre Scott, 17, of Vickery Lane, who was charged with four felonies relating to gang activity and one misdemeanor count of disrupting a public school, police said.
Fayetteville Police Chief Steve Heaton said Scott is apparently a leader of the gang called GBD, which includes members of the nationally based gangs, the Bloods and the Crips.
