Granite School District to redesign bathrooms

SALT LAKE CITY — Granite School District said it will redesign its bathrooms in hopes of stopping vandalism and cyber-bullying.

Two high schools are taking part in a pilot program that is responsible for the bathroom redesigns. 

Spokesperson Andrea Stringham said the redesigns are coming after several reports of students going home to use the bathroom because they didn’t feel safe at school. 

“Students are being filmed while they are using the restroom. That content is being posted on social media. We’re hearing from a lot of students who would rather go home to use the bathroom instead of just using the bathrooms at school, ” said Stringham. 

The District has already banned cell phones in restrooms, but the issue hasn’t gone away. 

“Unfortunately, even though they are not allowed to have their cell phones out, kids are being filmed using the restroom. Kids are having their shoes filmed and then that being put on social media,” said Stringham. The new design has the toilets enclosed in small rooms in hopes of stopping the videos. 

How could it stop vandalism? 

Stringham said social media challenges are the cause of a lot of mischief that goes on in school bathrooms. 

“We had one school recently that experienced $50,000 in damage due to one of these challenges. We are seeing mirrors being broken, stolen soap dispensers, toilets are getting clogged,” said Stringham. 

The new design includes two big openings, making the handwashing station very visible from the hallway. The District hopes that the openness of the handwash stations will stop the social media video challenges.

The overall goal of these redesigns is to reduce the disruptive, destructive, and unsafe behaviors of students and help them feel more safe in the bathroom.