Middle school removes bathroom mirrors to stop kids from making TikToks::Southern Alamance Middle School in Graham, North Carolina has taken drastic steps to reduce the time kids spend outside of class.
Yep this will stop them making tiktoks alright
So now they need to pull their phones out to see themselves. That’s totally logical.
It’s funny how this repeats every generation.
20 years back, my school removed mirrors in both the men’s and women’s washrooms, girls kept leaving lipstick on the mirrors, and the guys kept drawing on them with Sharpies.
They even removed toilet paper and hand towels because kids kept soaking it in water and throwing it up on the ceiling.
After that they even removed all the doors to the stalls in the men’s because kids kept leaving black marker “doodles” on them (ie. graffiti).
On my third year they ended up painting everything a very dark green colour. This included the walls, stalls and the ceiling to cover up all the black marker. The green made it almost impossible to make our any new graffiti added in black marker.
Was anyone else here brave enough to shit without a stall door? I had so much anxiety as a kid, but when u gotta go u gotta go.
Some kids tried to bully me and I was just like… I’m taking a shit, we all do it so fuck off. Still nerve wracking tho
I did it a couple times when I really had to go. I usually waited as along as I could after class started so no one was randomly in the bathroom in between classes.
If I were a school bully, I’d be concerned about the readily-available projectile that could emerge in this scenario. Only one type of asshole should be doing its job in there.
Most buildings or schools will have a barrier free washroom. If you find the school you are in removed the doors in the men’s and women’s the barrier free washrooms may be a good stop gap for privacy. Or try and find the faculty washrooms if you can sneak in. Another option is the gym/athletic change rooms, most times these get overlooked.
Edit: seems people do not know what a barrier free washroom is and assume it’s a washroom with no door.
Ie. Barrier free is a wheelchair accessible washroom commonly referred to as a handicapped washroom. This is a large single room washrooms usually located between the men’s and women’s washroom or off to the side. The washroom is self contained with a door toilet and sink. These washroom are unisex.
Hard disagree, we had similar issues at our high school and they removed the stall doors, and I was so petrified of my school bullies coming in while I was doing my business that I either used the faculty toilet or would just not go all day.
Back in my day they removed mirrors so we wouldn’t summon Bloody Mary.
Given that mirrors have never been an issue before TikTok, maybe, just maybe, the problem is elsewhere?
15-18 years ago when camera phones became commonly available for teenagers, but before front-facing cameras were built-in, we took selfies in the mirrors all day, most often to then upload them on our local pre-fb social media site for young people… I refuse to believe we were the only ones doing that.
However, I agree, that doesn’t mean the mirrors are the “problem”. Rather, there seem to be misaligned interests between the kids (some more interested in socializing, attention-seeking, being popular etc.) and the State-owned public schools (probably more interested in turning the kids into obedient “valuable citizens”). I think it’s better to reform the system than trying to deform the kids, but removing the mirrors doesn’t seem like the needed change…
A good move by the school.
