Some Tallwood High School staff are concerned about vaping and drug use throughout the school. Because of this, Tallwood has put restrictions on certain areas throughout the school. The most major of these changes currently being discussed is the three person limit in any THS bathroom during Lion Lunch. However, many students fail to realize that this limit is actually beneficial to our school. 

Even though drug use and vaping in teens is on the decline nationally, this doesn’t mean it isn’t still a problem. Whether it is opioids, stimulants, or depressants, it is affecting students both internally and externally. 

Most teen drug use is a result from peer pressure, a difficult lifestyle, or misuse of prescription drugs which leads to an addiction.

According to the organization Get Smart About Drugs, reasons why teens are resorting to drug use include “to relieve boredom, to feel good, to forget their troubles and relax, ease their pain, to feel grown up, or to belong to a specific group.”

To combat this and give students more motivation to learn, Tallwood High School has brought back Lion Lunch to give students more freedom and enjoyment in their high school lives, but this also led to them putting a limit on the amount of people allowed in one bathroom at one time.

According to a study done by the U.S. Department Of Health & Human Services, “more than 5,700 youth in 2014 reported using prescription pain relievers without a doctor’s guidance for the first time.”

This is important because schools should be a healthy environment for all students where they don’t have to worry about the stressors of drugs, and the above statistics show that even though the amount of teens using drugs has decreased, it is still a problem.

The three person limit on the Tallwood restrooms during Lion Lunch is in place to ensure that there is less vaping and drug use, and loitering in the restrooms during lunch. 

There are many cases of high school students loitering in bathrooms to hang out with friends or waste precious time that could be spent on finishing late class work. Students loitering in the bathroom during lunch can also make other students who need to use the restroom uncomfortable due to the excessive amount of students hanging around them.

I will say with confidence that the three person limit in Tallwood High School’s restrooms during Lion Lunch will result in a better, more drug free school environment. However, it will also result in a more comfortable restroom environment for students who simply want to use the restroom.

Tallwood High School should be a drug free educational environment where students can learn peacefully along with staff.