On the surface, McCaskey is a great school—and that’s because it is! McCaskey offers over 50 advanced courses and 30 student-run clubs. There is an opportunity for every student to succeed. However, there is one lingering problem at McCaskey that remains unsolved. McCaskey has a bathroom problem.

To start, it is key to discuss the need for safe bathrooms at McCaskey. According to a study conducted in 2022, 40% of Americans suffer from digestive issues, causing them bathroom troubles. Stats like these extend to McCaskey. Many students have digestive issues and need a safe place to use the restroom. Unfortunately, the McCaskey bathrooms do not provide a safe space for McCaskey students. 

First of all, bathroom vaping needs to be addressed. Bathroom vaping is the most substantial of McCaskey’s bathroom problems. According to McCaskey hall monitor Mr. Jones, about “70%-80% of the time,” he checks the bathrooms and observes students vaping. On top of vaping being wildly unhealthy and addictive to teenagers, bathroom vaping fosters a toxic environment, encouraging other students to vape to fit in.

In addition, bathroom vapers take up essential stall space to stay, so hall monitors cannot see them vaping, preventing McCaskey students who need the bathrooms from accessing them. The risks are obvious from the earlier stats. Students with very real digestive issues are denied the relief they need. As a result, many students flat-out refuse to use the bathroom because they know they won’t have access to a stall.

McCaskey’s bathroom vaping problems are only exacerbated by what students call “yarts”—vapes with THC (a chemical that induces a high) canisters. McCaskey sophomore Logan Merker stated that he “knows people who go into the bathroom, and come out with bloodshot red eyes acting all goofy.” 

Yarts have quickly become one the most common forms of vapes in McCaskey. Yarts, on top of being dangerous to a teenager like any vape would, are highly addictive and create a widespread yearning for them in McCaskey, leading to the creation of a McCaskey yart market. Students—usually in bathrooms or right outside the school—will trade yarts, either for another yart or for money. Yes, students are operating an illegal drug trade—and the market only shows signs of growing as more students begin to vape. As Mr. Jones said, “The problem has only gotten worse.”

Adding on, there is always a slim chance that a yart may be laced with fentanyl. In high schools around the country, vapes are being laced with fentanyl. Obviously, fentanyl lacing poses a huge threat to vaping children, as fentanyl is among the most dangerous drugs in the entire world. A dose of 2 milligrams is enough to kill. Despite the lethal nature of fentanyl, dealers will often lace vapes with fentanyl to increase the addictiveness of the vape for more business. Yes, dealers are putting their clients’ lives on the line for more money. As would be in any high school, there is a small chance that some vapes in McCaskey could be laced with fentanyl. McCaskey principal, Dr. Justin Reese, brought significant concern to this issue. When talking about the possibility of a McCaskey student dying because of a fentanyl laced vape, he stated, “Man, I don’t want to be here the day that happens.”

In recent years, McCaskey has employed hall monitors to catch vapers. Mr. Jones added that hall monitors are allowed to “kick vapers out of the bathroom and confiscate their vapes,” but are limited in what they can do outside of that. Obviously, hall monitors can refer vapers to higher-ups for formal punishment. Still, the problem is so widespread that any formal punishment would apply to a large portion of students and would require a team of dedicated punishment enforcers to draft punishments for vapers, or some other way to enforce high levels of punishment. Obviously, solutions to this problem are complicated, but increasing the power of hall monitors is an idea most can agree on. An example of this came from Mr. Jones, who said that hall monitors should “be allowed to get parents involved.” Dr. Reese added that “the next step may be a little more significant enforcement.” However, he believes expulsion from McCaskey for vaping is going too far, stating that he does not think that “causing you to lose a year of your education for a one-time poor decision as a young person is the right answer. That seems a little steep.”

Naturally, McCaskey would devise a plan to stop vapers right in their tracks—bring an end to the problem once and for all. Their master plan—on top of having hall monitors—was to close certain bathrooms to make it easier for them to catch vapers. Of course, their plan worked—but only to a certain degree. While it is now much easier to catch vapers and smokers in McCaskey because they are now aggregated to certain bathrooms, that same fact also brings about a flurry of other issues. Because vapers are now aggregated in the same bathrooms, there is even less room, further preventing legitimate bathroom use by those who need them. However, according to Dr. Reese, closing the bathrooms has ”significantly increased the number of confiscated vapes”, showing that the plan has had success in catching vapers despite some flaws with the plan.

However, McCaskey vapers still try evading hall monitors to stay out of trouble—and their methods for doing so are dangerous. Mr. Jones detailed how, whenever he walks into a bathroom with vapers, the vapers cover the smoke and “flush the vapes down the toilets.” The flushing of vapes has caused constant flooding in the bathrooms, threatening the safety of every McCaskey student across the campus.

There have been some genuinely unique ideas brought up to prevent bathroom vaping and smoking, one of which is the introduction of vape detectors. McCaskey sophomore Gabriel Martinez-Hidalgo believes the introduction of vape detectors would be a great solution as they would “ward off vapers and smokers while not compromising the privacy of students.” However, not everyone likes the idea of adding vape detectors as much as Gabriel does. Some view them as far too expensive, given that they would be going off all day. However, none of these solutions would stop students from vaping outside of school—but that is not a McCaskey problem. Solutions to the problem are complicated and limited, as none of them target the core problem at hand in the first place—child vaping in and out of school.

Truancy has also become a big problem in the McCaskey bathrooms alongside vaping and smoking. Students who are bored in class congregate in the bathroom—often to call their friends, scroll on their phones or vape. When students skip out of class, they are skipping out on their education. They are refusing to nurture themselves with the sweet fruit of knowledge, instead opting for quick hits of dopamine in the bathroom. As a result, truancy and low grades are problems among these students. As Mr. Jones said, “Education is in the classroom, not the bathroom.”

Of course, bathroom problems are not endemic to McCaskey. Assuming so would be both naive and shortsighted of the issue at hand. For instance, another school in the Lancaster area has been dealing with its own set of bathroom issues—Mannheim Township High School. Mannheim Township senior and editor-in-chief of the Township Times, Manheim Township’s newspaper publication, Anna Gail Mattson, stated that she often notices “students skipping class to hang out in the restroom.” Vaping at Township has been declining since they installed HALO vape detectors to deter it. However, much like McCaskey, bathroom truancy remains a significant issue in Township bathrooms.

The dire need to solve McCaskey’s bathroom problems cannot be understated. Attempted solutions have been ineffective at best, and the student body is hurting as a result. Obviously, devising possible solutions has been difficult, leaving us with a lingering question. What, if anything, can be done to ensure the safety of all bathrooms for the students of McCaskey?