By DANIELLA RAPPARPORT 
Staff Writer
Arguing over where athletes should be allowed to change before sixth period may seem like a trivial matter, but, when you have a six minute passing period and a teacher strict on tardiness, is it? Good luck holding it in. Some say it’s wrong to change in the bathroom, some say it’s right, and many say “who cares?”, but the restrooms having a part time job as a locker room can’t be efficient for both athletes and students with academic classes 6th period.
The general consensus is that the restroom holdup occurs more in the girls restrooms than the boys. Every restroom is a changing room at lunch and after fifth for the girls, while the boys sports occupation of the restroom seems to be localized to the facilities by the gym.
Why do the sports students do it you may ask? Allison Lu (Jr.), who runs track, justifies it by saying “it doesn’t make a difference if you use the girls bathroom or locker room because they are both far away from the track. I prefer to use the bathroom because it’s very crowded in the girls locker room and there is a long line to change in the bathroom there. If you wait in the line to get a stall in the bathroom, essentially, it is taking the same time to wait in that line as it would to wait in the girls’ locker room.”
Some girls sports players use the bathroom to change simply because everyone else is. Wrestler Lorena Egea (Jr.) admits, “I don’t use the locker room because everyone else is changing in the bathroom…I think just one more person changing in there wouldn’t make a difference. t’s simple to go in there and change real quick. I don’t even use the stalls. The guys in my wrestling sometimes even change in the gym, but they don’t use the restrooms as much to change like the women do”
Not every girls sport athlete is for changing in the restrooms. Katelyn Nass (So.) explained, “I change in the locker rooms because I don’t want to change in the bathrooms. I think it’s wrong because, when you have to go to the bathroom and people are changing in there, it isn’t fair.”
Students who don’t have a sport sixth period see the matter the same as Nass does. Hannah Hashemi (Jr.) said, “It is really annoying when I need to go the bathroom sixth period and there is a huge line because all the people in sports want to change inside the stalls. All I can think is why are all these people not using the locker room? I understand that lot of people are insecure and want a bathroom stall to change in, but it’s inconsiderate to the people that have classes to get to.”
Her sister Emma Hashemi (Jr.) agrees. “I was in soccer freshman year and I felt like the locker room is so full that you had to use the bathrooms. So I understand why the bathrooms seem like a better option, but, now that I don’t take a sport, I see that having girls use it as a locker room is not fair.”
When Ms. Melissa Salinger (Athletic Department), who supervises the girls locker room on occasion, was asked why she thinks students don’t use the locker room she said, “I see that a lot of athletes just choose to change by where they practice. So track will change in the bathroom by the stadium, and swimming will in the locker room just because they are conveniently closer.”
Her theory could be supported by the fact that the boys who take sports change in the most convenient space, right where they practice. Wrestlers Max Hertz (Sr.) and Jordan Elam (Sr.) don’t have an issue with where they have to change saying, “We change in the gym for wrestling most of the time and sometimes [in the] bathroom. When we aren’t allowed to change in the gym, we change in the restroom…We don’t change in the boys locker room because it is inconvenient. The bathroom is right there and not out of the way of the gym.”
Tennis player Ben Schneiderman (Jr.) says the same thing.
“I change for tennis on the courts. A lot of guys use the restroom by the gym, so you kind of have to avoid that one. I feel like they should be able to, well I mean it’s the bathroom where else are they going to change? The locker room? It’s kind of like taboo, no one gets access to the locker room except specific sports. Like anyone can, but only like football and stuff go in the locker room.”
The simple yes or no question on if athletes should be able to change in the restrooms is more multifaceted than it seems. Is it fair to make everyone change in their respective locker rooms? There may be no solution soon, but the conversation continues.