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SALT LAKE CITY — After seeing an increase in vandalism spurred by social media trends, Granite School District has designed bathrooms in its two new high schools to allow "for more safety and supervision," according to an announcement on its website.
"One school recently spent almost $50,000 in repairing damages caused in the restroom due to these challenges. This includes breaking mirrors, stealing soap dispensers, clogging toilets with toilet paper, and we have even had attempts to remove urinals from the wall," the release says.
According to a 2024 report detailing school discipline and law enforcement data, many issues in schools have seen spikes in post-COVID years, including incidents of harassment, bullying, assault and disruption.
School officials say they have "seen an upsetting trend where many students do not feel safe or comfortable using traditional enclosed restroom facilities while at school for fear of cyber-bullying and harassment," the release says, and "schools do not have the manpower to monitor every restroom at all times."
Cellphones are partially to blame, despite being banned, the district says. "We are still seeing many instances of students being filmed while they are using the restroom and that content is posted on social media," according to the release. The result — students are leaving campus and going home to use the bathroom.
In Granite's new construction projects — the new Cyprus and Skyline High School campuses — officials say they may be using a design that "many new school buildings around the state and country are using ... to improve safety for students."
Small individual rooms with toilets, floor-to-ceiling doors and walls, would be connected to a shared handwashing area that "is entirely open to the hallway," the announcement says.
There will still be traditional restrooms on the same floors, but school officials hope that the new designs will "curb issues, like vaping and harassment, that unfortunately occur most often in traditional enclosed restrooms," the release says.
Similar handwashing stations have been in the district's elementary schools for over two decades, according to the post, for "similar supervisory reasons."
