McKinney School District Denies Removing Bathroom Doors To Prevent Students From Having Sex (VIDEO)

Students at a high school in McKinney, Texas would like just a little bit more privacy and with good reason -- the doors to their bathrooms have been removed.

McKinney North High School students and their parents are outraged at the invasion of privacy, but school officials claim the doors to bathroom entrances were removed to "keep kids safe," reportsThe Daily Mail.

Rumors the doors were removed to prevent students from engaging in sex in the bathrooms have been circulating among the student body, but the school district claims that's not the case.

"We've had a dialog about removing the doors from the restrooms for a couple of years," McKinney Independent School District spokesman, Cody Cunningham told NBCDFW.com. "The students felt like the reason we were removing them was because of some inappropriate sexual behavior in the restrooms, but that couldn't be further from the truth."

The decision to remove the doors happened around the same time that school officials spoke to students about inappropriate public displays of affection, but claim the two incidents are unrelated.

Parents and students are calling the move an invasion of privacy, but school argues that the students still have the privacy to use the facilities since there is no line of sight from the hallway into the bathrooms.

Cunningham told NBCDFW.com that restroom designs without exterior doors are becoming more common in new schools and in other locations such as airports.

"We have schools in the rest of our district that don't have doors on the restrooms so this isn't the first one," he said.

Still, this isn't the first time McKinney North has encountered controversy. In 2006, the members of the school's cheerleading squad, earned the reputation as real-life "Mean Girls," -- dubbed "the Fab Five," for skipping class, bullying their cheerleading coach and classmates and posting sexually suggestive photos of themselves on Myspace. The incident made national headlines and even inspired a Lifetime movie titled, "Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal."

View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.

Comments

[FrancoBegby]

04:53 PM on 01/18/2012

As a high school teacher of eight years I can sadly say that I understand the logic behind this decision. I was shocked my first year of teaching when I got multiple complaints from girls who said they didn't feel comfortable going to the bathroom because of all the sex acts going on in there.

It was common knowledge that the girl's restroom was a haven for these kind of things, and also common knowledge that a lot of girls had to wait until they got home to use the restroom.

I reported the problem, but nobody addressed it. How do you prevent multiple females from engaging in sex acts in a girl's restroom? They didn't even want to acknowledge it.

Safety vs. Privacy is a common conflict in today's world that is not easily solved. Whoever decided to remove the doors at this school made a brash, well-intentioned decisision for which they will probably pay dearly.

[ragdolly]

08:52 PM on 01/17/2012

The school may be concerned about inappropriate behavior by employees of the school as well. What a world we live in.

[npw350]

09:39 AM on 01/17/2012

You know, it's time for this to stop. We didn't have doors on our stalls when I was a boy and a kid couldn't go to the restroom without a group harassing him while he went. I waited every day to go when I got home and so did a lot of other kids. I hope the parents protest loud and clear. Enough of this egregious practice.

[townsquarebuzz]

06:19 PM on 01/16/2012

For the record, local online news site TownSquareBuzz.com broke this story last week to quash rumors. Privacy is a non-issue in this instance. http://townsquarebuzz.com/ams/36813/school-officials-removal-restroom-doors-mnhs-preventative-measure/715/ams/36813

[pphhrogg]

06:18 PM on 01/16/2012

They are removing doors in the bathrooms to keep HIGH SCHOOL students "safe"??? Nope. That s NOT the reason. If I was a parent of one of those students, I'd take the school to federal court.

[Boston 019]

12:31 PM on 01/16/2012

Many schools have done away with the exterior doors. When I was in high school, there was a teacher of each gender posted outside the bathrooms, and they would go in periodically sniffing for cigarettes.

What bugged me was that the smoking problem at my school inspired officials to shut all but one bathroom in the building completely. 3 toilets, per gender, to service a student population of 2,300. I went to the bathroom maybe four times in those four years.

[npw350]

09:40 AM on 01/17/2012

Yep. At least kids these days have parents that will do something about it.

[Dede Eagleburger]

11:38 AM on 01/16/2012

Wow. I saw the number of comments on this and knew people weren't reading or didn't really have a clue...
It's the outside doors going into the bathrooms and a lot of places are being built like that now - the new school in our district was designed that way - the entrance goes around and so privacy's not an issue...it really all depends on how the bathrooms are designed as to whether or not you can go without the outside doors...
if you have ever been about to walk out of a bathroom and gotten hit by the door by someone else coming in then you would know where this is coming from...!!!

[Disillusioned One]

03:08 PM on 01/16/2012

Agree Dede. I see many public restrooms now that have no exterior doors in stores, airports, etc.. The entrance is an open half moon turn in some but the stalls have doors.

[Dede Eagleburger]

03:24 PM on 01/16/2012

exactly, thank you!!
I guess anything can be turned into a story nowadays...

[pphhrogg]

06:19 PM on 01/16/2012

However, they ALL have hallways that hide the nside of the bathroom from the outside hall, too. Have you EVER seen a bathroom in a school built like that? I haven't.

[npw350]

09:44 AM on 01/17/2012

You're right, the article doesn't make that clear, but the video does.

[Dede Eagleburger]

09:59 AM on 01/17/2012

A lot of people read the headlines I think and then go straight to leave a comment...sad.

[Ariel Bonzai]

12:23 AM on 01/16/2012

Well, they do do it in the bathroom. This is why sex education is as necessary as English and Math. We can parade around in high morals and expect these kids to control themselves, we can rob them of their privacy and humiliate them guilty or not. Or we can wake up to smell the coffee. We need to give adolescents the knowledge they need to understand and contain these biological regs which are in overdrive thanks to our specialized culture, hormones in food and the gods only know what else.

[BowlingForRevenge]

07:58 PM on 01/15/2012

This is hilarious. McKinney is so late onto this bus.
Many many DFW area high schools took the exterior doors AND interior doors off the bathrooms back in the 90's. We had an incident where one girl literally tried to crush another girls arm in the stall door over a boy. Lawsuits galore!
At our HS south of Dallas there is ONE stall in each that has a door and that's it... tough toenails!
It's still that way and NO ONE has died!
The students who misbehave set the rules.
THAT'S who these irate students need to vent their anger on.
Get over it, move on.

[pphhrogg]

06:21 PM on 01/16/2012

Nah...I don't "get over" invasions of privacy. Our U.S. Constitution covers that, so if you "think" that it should simply be ignored, then you must not think much of the Constitution either.

[BowlingForRevenge]

07:37 PM on 01/16/2012

No, I don't think much of self righteousness. Truly vent your ire on the ones who caused the problems not the ones trying to prevent them. Pax.

[wizardneedsbeer]

06:38 PM on 01/15/2012

“Just change the titles
Principal to Warden
School to Fortress
Teacher to Guard
Diploma to Lucky
And be done with
all the complaints”

[wizardneedsbeer]

06:53 PM on 01/15/2012

Also if you haven't noticed
I'm a 4 times problem solver
Ha!

[been2there]

04:56 PM on 01/15/2012

Would you want to use a stall without doors? Privacy matters!

[Andrew West II]

09:21 PM on 01/15/2012

The stalls still have doors! I know this because I go to this school!

[Ariel Bonzai]

12:27 AM on 01/16/2012

So, the doors were just removed from the bathroom? Or is that not true?i trust you more than these reporters. Any idea why this is a story?

[Dede Eagleburger]

03:22 PM on 01/16/2012

Thank you!! F/F...why is nobody taking the time to actually read besides you and me?

[Ariel Bonzai]

12:25 AM on 01/16/2012

I can't go without a door. My plumbing won't run.

[hawaiianstile]

03:50 PM on 01/15/2012

like a crappy beach bathroom.

[Billy Jack]

03:13 PM on 01/15/2012

If the kids are having sex in school, then there's a bigger concern that needs to be addressed than the bathroom doors

[Disillusioned One]

03:09 PM on 01/16/2012

SO true!

[critterzdad2]

02:48 PM on 01/15/2012

I confess my first reason to read this was to find out which restrooms (mens or womens) had the doors removed and for what type of inappropriate sex was occurring. Then I realized it didn't really matter. Doors on, doors off, its just a sign of the times that we value forbidding sex to high school teens over privacy. Of course, other inappropriate behavior can occur. Smoking, using and or selling drugs- even hiding while ditching class could occur- and that's just what comes immediately to mind. I guess what we need to be concerned about is the privacy issue. I have a problem doing #2 in a stall without a door. So the question is this- privacy or no privacy? I opt for realizing that any of the listed objectionable behaviors can and will take place anywhere if people are of a mind to do them but taking a dump is NOT a spectator sport! Leave the doors up!

[Andrew West II]

03:11 PM on 01/15/2012

It seems ALMOST EVERYONE Is misinterpreting this. I go to this school and it is NOT the stall doors that have been removed, it is the exterior doors. The students that say that there was sex going on are freshman and sophomores, and we ALL should know the immaturity of them and how easily they can misinterpret and spread false rumors. The media will do anything to provide readership, even if that means destroying hundreds of students chances at a good college.

[Ariel Bonzai]

12:32 AM on 01/16/2012

I doubt that it will harm your chances of going to college. Admission offices employ educated people who know what the media does. If your grades are good. Your SAT is respectable and most importantly you write an amazing personal statementuo will get in. I might even use his experience as a hook. Congratulations, Mr.West, you just learned somethong abut he media most of us don't figure out until we are much,much older. Good luck.

[critterzdad2]

03:38 AM on 01/16/2012

Freshman? person and sophomores do like to gossip! Like As I said we have to trust people and teach people and encourage people to do the right thing but what that is I seldom have a clue and I'm almost 60!
Media be damned! They do have to get an audience for the advertisers no matter the message.
I'm glad its only the entrance doors- and that's a non starter today. Most restrooms lack doors at the entrances. Thanks for the input!!!

[carly after]

02:46 PM on 01/15/2012

When I read this headline I thought that it was talking about the stall doors. Removing the bathroom doors isn't a big deal at all, plenty of public places have bathrooms with no exterior doors.